First Impressions Matter
by LadyWhyFi
Summary: Her parents were growing more desperate with each try, but their stubborn daughter had other plans. His dad only wanted to get his son a suitable wife so he could finally focus on succeeding the company, but he only wanted to live in peace. Even their friends wondered how many times they could set them up before they finally got a clue.
1. First Times' the Charm

**First Times' the Charm**

"Are you really sure about this?" Jirou followed her to the bathroom and leaned with her arms crossed against the side of the door, as she asked the question for the umpteenth time. Seriously, she had lost count of it.

"Yes, Ji, I'm sure, now have you seen my comb?"

Jirou moved from her place to hand her the comb that was lying near the sink and handed it to the stressed out girl, getting ready.

Momo took it with a thanks and set herself in front of the mirror to straighten her hair.

"Your parents are designers, Yaomomo" Jirou came into view of the mirror as she regarded her best friend in the reflexion. "You're a designer! You're a designer family!"

Momo sighed and looked at her friend. She was dressed a black tight leather dress that curved her silhouette nicely, she was wearing a leather choker and had some red/brownish long earrings and some other matching jewellery. Her sleek purple hair curved her face. Honestly, the look was a little extreme for Momo, but it suited the girl perfectly. She wore it like she owned it.

Momo on the other hand was still in her underwear and had just finished putting her hair in a ponytail with a bright blue (the designer in her would have called the correct term Aqua Sparkle but that would have been debatable) ribbon. She moved from the mirror to her bedroom, closely followed by her friend.  
"I am aware, which is exactly why I'm doing this." She finished.

"I know you are rebelling". Jirou picked up the black clothes bag that was lying ready on the bed. "But wearing THIS to the party? That's a little extreme, even for you." The girl gestured the bag with one hand as she held it up with the other.

"It's a 2011 model." The black haired shrugged. "They must have liked it at one point." A small smile appeared on her lips as she took out the box that had her shoes in it. She opened it and regarded the dark red heeled sandals inside. A groan escaped her friend as she noticed the shoes.

"I give up." The purplehead let herself fall onto the bed defeated. She put her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling.

Momo picked up the bag from where Jirou had dropped it on the bed. "Besides, I gave it a few tweaks to make it more fun."

Jirou sat up straight and crossed her legs with a grin. "You made it worse?!"

Momo regarded the bag with a smile: "I made it worse." And with a dramatic fake flick of her hair and a wink she left for her dresser with the bag flipped behind her shoulder.

Jirou chuckled. And pulled out her phone to check the time. They still had a few hours before the actual party. She sighed once and looked around the large room.  
You could tell Yaomomo was a successful designer at first glance.  
If her huge apartment, or her walk in dresser with at least a hundred Yaoyorozu originals in it, wasn't a dead giveaway. Then it would have been the 3 fitting dolls (male, female, child), the knitting machine or the big ass drawing board in the middle of her living room.  
The dresser was not as much a gift as an obligation from her parents when she moved out of her parents house to try and live on her own. And she was doing great. She was happy. She had a few clothing lines on her name already and could manage on her own. She swore the woman made things that she would never even think of out of thin air. Her creations she called it.

She was proud of her friend to take the step to move out. It made her less bound to her family name and success. And more her own person. Even though she grew up with butlers and maids her whole live. Momo never shied away from cleaning duties or cooking meals. She even enjoyed those too.

Life was good. That is without all of those bloody marriage proposals her parents kept forcing her to go to. She knew her friend would snap one of these days, she just never expected her to be so extreme about it and use her promise to wear a Yaoyorozu original to every party she went to, her parents probably never expected her to edit one herself. The worst sold outfit ever. It amazed her that she even kept that hideous thing.

"Well?" A soft voice cut Jirou out of her musings as she turned her head towards her friend.  
Her eyes went wide as she took in the sight in front of her.  
Momo was wearing a white toga kind of dress. It had a silk dark red cloth draped over one of her shoulders and the other was bare. The red stopped knee high whereas the white continued until her feet. On her left leg there was a cut that showed her knee about thigh high. The sleeve was not as much a sleeve as much as a cloak that draped on her shoulder and ended on her bracelet. Her arm was bare as the sleeve was an open one.  
The red was crossed over her chest, giving her a half white, half red look. Everything was held together with a grey/brownish belt and a big round same coloured pin on her shoulder that kept the sleeve in place.  
She was wearing bright blue earrings, bracelet and hair tie to boot. The look finished with the same red coloured sandals.

Jirou snorted as Momo gave a satisfactional twist to show the outfit off.  
Putting a hand in front of her mouth to keep herself from laughing Jirou tried to comment on it.

"Momo, I… can't…."

Momo put her hands in her side patiently with a satisfied grin. This was the reaction she wanted.  
As soon as Jirou got a hold of herself she cocked her head questioningly.  
Jirou cleared her throat.  
"I'm sorry Yaomomo, I'm not laughing for the way you want me to."  
Momo felt her mood drop. "Then why where you laughing?"  
Jirou looked at her apologetically. "You look like a greek goddess, I was laughing because your tweaks made the dress better, you look beautiful."

Momo deadpanned. "No way." She ran toward the mirror and regarded herself.  
"Ji, I look like a freaking colouring book. This is horrible."  
Jirou shook her head. "You never liked your own designs, Yaomomo, but you outdid yourself on this one, I think you'll actually start a new trend with this." Jirou got off the bed and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Momo groaned. Silently wondering who would willingly wear this weird colour combination.

* * *

Shouto sighed as he looked in the mirror. He ran a hand through his two coloured bangs only to watch them fall neatly back in place in the middle of his head.  
He hated his hair. He would have giving anything to dye it completely white. But he knew his father would never allow it as long as he lived under his roof. It was proof of his proud Todoroki heritage after all.

He let his hand slide down his face across his scar on his left side. It didn't hurt. Not physically anyway. You could say it was also because of his inheritance that he got it. He looked through his fingers at his heterochromatic eyes. One bright blue and the other grey/brown. "A colouring book." He said to himself.

Another sigh escaped him as he took a step backwards. To look at his outfit.  
He was wearing an onyx grey suit. A black simple shirt and a fitting grey tie.  
It was obviously way too expensive as the suit was fitted to him perfectly. Another thing to show off his heritage.

"Stop sighing Todoroki-kun. You look great." A voice interrupted his train of thoughts.  
He turned around and looked at his computer screen. On it where two people. On one side was a green haired boy with freckles on his face and on the other a blue haired man with squared glasses.

"I'm sorry Ida-kun but I'm just not cut out for this thing." He walked towards the screen to his friends' skype conversation and sat down in front of it. "Are you sure you guys can't make it?"

"We apologise, Shouto" The green haired boy answered. But my mom says I'm not allowed to leave the house until I'm fully healed. He showed his casted arm on the screen. The young boy had been overdoing it again. Midoria was training to become a fireman. A noble profession, if he did not have the tendency to go overboard now and then and almost literally tried to lift burning cars on his own. It didn't help that Midoria's pyromanian friend kept daring him into contests to see who saves more people every time.  
Shouto turned the other side of the screen. "I have to stay here." The man sighed." My fiancé's concocting a new weapon for me to use on the field again, but I don't want the house to explode so I need to keep an eye on her."  
Ida was a freshly out of school police officer. Also a dangerous professions. But his house was actually a more dangerous at the moment, because he was living together (and now engaged to) a clever scientist who had a tendency to make her inventions explode before they worked. Shouto never understood how those two happened. Being so different, but then again. Love works in mysterious ways.

"I understand, it's just that I've never been to these things before, so much could go wrong."  
Shouto was actually more afraid of the whole thing than he let on.  
"Or could go right? You could actually find someone that actually fits you perfectly?" The green haired boy hinted with a smile.

Shouto pulled a face. Like that would ever happen.  
He was actually betting on that to never happen. Because he had made a bet with his father. The only reason he actually went through with this whole thing.  
The bet was that he had until 25 to find himself a suitable wife, by himself. Shouto never had any actual interest in love, he was way more focussed on studying what he loved most. Chemicals.  
Especially fire and ice related things. How atoms so similar yet so different could make such beautiful things and yet be so destructive, fascinated him beyond belief.

Off course his father expected him to help him run the family business, so he had to take economics, bookkeeping and a lot of other boring business subjects. All on which he excelled because as long as he did those well, he could choose his other subjects. Happy that he did, because he met his friends in those classes.

As soon as he had graduated however. He realised he had forgotten this little side bet. And as he had turned 25 last month. He had no choice to go to this ball his father had not so subtlety organised in his name. The unobvious fact that only rich bachelorette women and men of his age where attending that would make potential suitors for him did not go unnoticed by a lot of people (The men being invited as a cover up). He knew most of the women were going there because he was just some rich kid, searching for a "wife". Marring into easy money. His father didn't care about that. As long as they had a good background, any girl would do. No, he would not let that happen.

He regarded his friends. "I doubt it. Rich women are horrible."  
His friends nodded silently. "Just show your face and then be off. You're not actually that famous you know, no one will know who you are."

This was true. Although everyone knew the famous Todoroki name, and his brothers and sister had already very successful lives, he never shared their enthusiasm. He never went to fancy parties, photoshoots or live tv-shows. Not a lot of people knew what he actually looked like. Only the people of their main branch knew from the few meetings he had been to. This gave him a little hope.  
Only his hair would give him away. Here's to hoping there were a lot of redheads today. Fat chance of that happening though.

Another sigh escaped him as he straightened up. "You're right Ida-kun, let's just get this over with."  
Ida nodded enthusiastically with crossed arms and Midoria gave him a thumbs up with his 'not casted' arm. "Go get him, tiger!" The boy said with a wink.  
Shouto rolled his eyes as he said his goodbyes and turned to computer off.  
He took his invitation in hand and checked his way to expensive watch to calculate how much time it would take to get there. The party was in one of the company halls so he still had to drive a short bit to actually get there.

He stared as himself one last time sideways in the mirror and then walked out of his room with a determined look. He could do this.

* * *

Jirou was right, people were weird. As soon as she had stepped out of the car, the camera's where right in her face.  
People loved her outfit.

It didn't help that she had heard the fifth 'I told you so' whisper in her ear from her friend.  
She held a way to expensive champagne class in her hand, while she leaned against a wall in a corner. Hoping to escape all of the 'potential suitors' she was sure off her mother had helped gather for this stupid party.

She knew it was organised by one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, and richest companies in the country. Todoroki incorporated. They owned almost everything, from the smallest tech lab to the biggest mall in Japan. She knew her parents had a few shops in those malls and where desperate to keep them and even to expand. So she had to be sure not to insult anyone.

There was but one problem. She also knew that the son was here, looking for a wife. But she had no clue what the man looked like, other than that he was about her age. Cursing to herself for rebelling and not looking up anything about this party, she tried to be as polite as possible to every man that tried to talk to her. So her parents could not use anything against her other than her dress code. Which she also failed at. Today was a disaster.

Momo had lost her friend a little while ago on the snacking table. She saw her from afar, talking to a young man with blonde hair. He had a strange black lightning bolt in his hair and they seemed to be talking intimately.  
She recognised him. His name was Denki Kaminari, and his parents owned an electric company somewhere abroad. They had a house here in Japan and visited often. She had been on an arrange marriage date with him before and he seemed like a decent guy, If you liked his silly jokes and aloof behaviour that is.

She looked at her friend and saw she was smiling. This made her smile too. She was suddenly very happy she had convinced Jirou to come with her. Although she wasn't that rich, her father was a famous movie music composer and she knew the girl dreamed of doing the same thing. Her father's fame is what made her get the invite in the first place but she didn't want to go, until Momo convinced her. It seemed at least something good came out of this day.

Momo sighed as she moved from her spot near the wall. She put her glass down on a nearby table as she looked for the bathroom to try and get a break. She was stopped by something touching her bare leg. She looked down in horror to see the man she least wanted to see. A tiny purple haired man with curls as big as tennis balls and he barely reached her thigh. He was wearing his usual purple and yellow striped suit as he tried to catch her attention.

She sighed openly as she regarded him. "Yes, Minoru-san?" She tried to politely say, but she knew she was failing in mustering up a smile.

"May I just say you look Dashing this evening miss Yaoyorozu". He rose his glass to her as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She groaned silently as she rolled her eyes. She was sure he had seen it but didn't care. "Not your usual style I admit, but beautiful none the less." She noticed his eyes roamed her body in a not very polite way. She shivered under his glare. She did all she could to muster up a smile. "Why, thank you Minoru-san, now if you'll excuse me." She walked past him as quickly as she could.  
Every party it was the same thing, he would come up to her and ask her to dance, she would refuse politely at least 5 times until he found another victim. But this time she would not let him get to her, she only knew his name, but it was enough, she knew he wasn't important so she couldn't care less if she was a little rude. She didn't need to know anything about this creep other than that he was a pervert. She had seen him hit on and dance with women on every party, every time he drank he got touchier and touchier. She hated him. And Momo didn't hate a lot of people.

He was obviously drunk already so she had to get out of here quickly, so that's what she did. Until she felt a tug on her wrist. "Come on miss, don't be such a party pooper. I didn't even ask you yet."  
He had grabbed her arm and pulled her down to his height with a small 'ack.' She knew she was currently giving him a full view of her cleavage which he hungrily took in. She was disgusted.  
She tried to pull wrist back as she uttered a "No, Thank you." Between gritted teeth.

He didn't let go as he stared at her chest, almost drooling.  
Momo had enough off it. Letting her self-defence classes kick in, she put a foot backwards, opened her palm to take his wrist, pushed it upwards and put her other hand on his chest. She then pushed him backwards with enough force that he had let go of her hand. Her now free arm got loose and the force made it go backwards. She had not heard the: "Mister, the Lady obviously doesn't-"in time until she felt her elbow impact into someone's stomach behind her. She looked around in horror just in time to see a man bend over with his hands on his stomach with an "Oof". Momo felt horrified, this party was turning out to be way worse than a disaster.

* * *

Shouto had noticed her.  
Everyone had noticed her he was sure.  
But he didn't believe it.

She was leaning against a wall boredly, rolling around the Champaign in her glass.  
She was wearing his colours. HIS colours.  
The colour book colours.  
He realised he was openly staring, but he didn't care. He drank in the image. The dark red. The grey/brown, the white and even his bright blue. And to top it all, she made it look good. She owned those colours. Whereas he hated them.  
Did she wear them on purpose? To catch his attention? Was she scheming something?  
No. That couldn't be. She hadn't even glanced his way. She didn't glance any way at all. She looked like he thought before. Bored.

His eyes fell on her face. He admitted silently she was pretty cute. He noticed the blue ribbon in her raven hair and smiled at the detail. No, she was beautiful.

Startled by his own thinking he shook his head and tried to concentrate on the person in front of him.  
A pretty little girl, with pink hair. He vaguely noticed her eyes where yellow and she was wearing a green/purple leopard print cocktail dress. She was talking about some acid type thing her father invented that could easily go through solid cement. But he only heard parts of the conversation. She didn't seem to mind his vague 'hmm' and 'yes' as she continued to babble happily. He let her.

His eyes fell on the coloured woman again. He had noticed she had short conversations with a few gentlemen but he had also noticed something different. Her smile never reached her eyes.  
She was politely smiling sure, but he knew that smile anywhere. For he had practised it in front of the mirror enough to recognise it. This woman clearly didn't want to be here as much as he did.

Feeling a little annoyed about that thought he fought the sudden urge to change that. It was his father's fault this party happened, not his, so why did he feel guilty? He then noticed something else.  
A real smile, if he didn't think she looked beautiful before, he definitely thought it now.  
She was looking at something from afar and turned his head towards the direction. He noticed a man and a woman talking animatedly. He recognised the woman as she was the one she entered with. She was clearly happy for her friend.

Shouto turned back to where the coloured woman was standing only to notice she was gone.  
A little panicked he looked around. Wait, why was he panicked? It's not like he was ever going to approach her or anything. He eyes fell on her again a few seconds later as she was talking to a small purple haired man.  
He knew this man. Not 10 minutes earlier he had been trying to grab another woman's behind before someone slapped his hand away just in time. (Yes, he liked to overserve what was happening around him, so he saw that.) And now he was obviously trying with this raven haired beauty. For some reason this rubbed him the wrong way but it was none of his business. Right when he tried to turn back to his conversation he noticed the annoyance in her face. Getting annoyed in her stead he decided she was probably too polite to turn him down so he decided he would help. Not really thinking straight he excused himself from his talking companion and walked straight towards the coloured woman.

She tried to walk away but he saw the man took her wrist and pulled her down. With renewed energy he was now sure he was doing the right thing, as she was obviously not interested in his advances. He noticed she was trying to take her arm back but he wouldn't let go. Time for him to step in.

"Mister, the Lady obviously doesn't-"He tried to say but he was graced with an elbow to his stomach from none other than the lady herself. He doubled over with an "oof" as the impact was much stronger than he anticipated he only thought one thing. 'This woman didn't need his help.'  
But he was none the less impressed about her ability all the same.

'OH MY GOD! I'm so sorry." He heard her say.  
Not really daring to say much, in fear of his voice not being fully back he coughed a little, waving his hand as an 'just a minute'.

He felt a hand on his shoulder as she kneeled in front of him to be able to look into his face. "Are you all right? I'm so sorry. I didn't see you. I tried to get-…" She was obviously flustered but as soon as he looked up she fell silent. Their faces where but a few inches apart. In her eyes he saw surprise, Did she finally recognise him? Then it turned to concern. Realising this would turn awkward fast he cleared his throat and stood up straight. He held out his hand to her. "I'm all right, I think. That's quite an arm you got there."

* * *

Momo felt horrible. This wasn't supposed to happen. She only tried to get rid of the purple nuisance, not hurt anyone else. Especially when that person was obviously trying to help her.

'OH MY GOD! I'm so sorry!" she whispered to him.  
She stepped closer to the man and extended her hand, not sure if she could touch him or not. She held her other to her mouth.

She saw him raise his hand. Hoping this meant 'it's okay' or 'just a minute' she waited for a bit.  
Then deciding not to take any chances she put her hand on his shoulder and crouched in front of him. "Are you all right? I'm sorry. I didn't see you. I tried to get-" she started, but she was startled by him looking up at her.

He first thought was that she was an idiot. This man was gorgeous beyond belief. She took in his well-formed jaw and heterochromatic eyes. She noticed his scar on his left side of his face, but it charmed him somehow. She had just hit this man. This man that tried to help her and was totally her type. A real gentleman. Yes she was stupid. And staring! A little startled when he cleared his throat and stood up, she stayed crouched to process what had just happened.

She looked at his extended hand and then back to him. "I'm all right, I think. That's quite an arm you got there." Was that a chuckle?

She took his hand a little reluctantly, almost afraid to do something wrong again and let herself be pulled up. As soon as she opened her mouth to explain herself she was startled by another voice.

"Girl, you all right? What just happened?"  
Jirou ran up to her and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Miss, that was quite a show you put on there. I'm sure he will feel that tomorrow." Denki chuckled as he pointed with his thumb behind him. Walking towards them as it was the most casual thing ever.

They all looked towards the purple haired man. He lay in the middle of the room, staring openly to the sky, his drink spilled all over him and the glass chattered around him. They watched as two waiters ran up to him. One cleaned up the pieces swiftly and the other pulled the short man up and guided him to the door.

"Oh, I see". Jirou suddenly chuckled, the man and Momo both turned to Jirou, who had taken out her cell phone and turned it to them. "Say cheese?" she asked.

"Cheese?" they both asked her, as Momo cocked her head and the coloured haired man simply rose his eyebrow.  
A soft click startled them both and before they could process what happened Jirou pushed her phone towards them. "You guys are a match made in heaven!" she chuckled happily.

Momo looked at the photo. The first thing she noticed where the colours. There were a lot of them. But not as much as she thought there where. This was because both sides of the image had the exact same amount of them. His hair, her dress. His eyes, her accessories, his suit, her eyes and hair. They really did match. And her designing eye would have appreciated the unity of it a great deal. If not for a tiny detail that made her blush and turn to him with wide eyes. It seemed like he realised it at a same time and looked at her with that same surprised look on his face. They then looked down simultaneously.

They were still holding hands. He was holding them up to their waist and hers was resting neatly in his.

As if they touched fire, they quickly retreated their hands. He put his behind his back and she put her hand in the other in front of her. She knew she must be bright red at this point. But if she wasn't mistaken, she had also seen a blush on his face. But he was hiding it as he looked the other way. She must say he looked rather cute.

"Aww come on, that was adorable." Jirou chuckled.  
"Now, now, Kyouka-san, you shouldn't tease them like that." The blonde boy patted the other man's shoulder. The man looked at him surprised by the touch. "But I must admit, was this planned?"

Momo shook her head wildly. "No! I mean" she sighed once to calm herself a little. "No, we've never met before, have we?" she turned to the two-toned haired man questioningly and he quietly shook his head. "I don't think we have."

"Well, any a time to meet someone new I guess." Denki chuckled as he pushed Jirou away from them. "Let's leave them to it, shall we?" He addressed Jirou as he gently urged her to the snacking table again.  
Jirou nodded once but turned her head towards the man with squinted eyes. She then moved up her hand and put up the pointy and pinky finger. She turned them towards her eyes and then to him. She did this movement twice. Momo knew what it meant. 'I'm watching you.'  
Seriously, this girl was too protective sometimes. But it warmed her heart to know she was looking out for her.

"That's quite a friend you have there." She heard the man say. Momo was still looking at Jirou, now arguing with Denki about something as they had reached the table again. She nodded silently with a smile. "Yeah, she's a gem."

"You've got a nice smile." His low voice melted her like chocolate on a fire. She felt her eyes widen and turned to him surprised.

"I'm sorry?" she asked him, not sure if she had dreamed that last part.

"Your smile." He repeated. "Your real smile, it's quite nice." He had said it in a soft voice, but with a straight, genuine face.

She felt herself blush. How can he say something so corny with a straight face! Not really sure how to answer to that she put one of her loose hairs behind her ear. "Thank you?" she tried.

Seemingly realising what he had said. He put his hand behind his head with an awkward blush.

She then remembered something and turned back to the man and took a step closer.  
"That reminds me! Are you all right? Does it still hurt?"  
The man got startled again with the sudden movement and took a step backwards.  
He cleared his throat again with a cough to calm himself. "Yes, Yes I'm fine." He held up his hands to keep some distance.

Suddenly feeling awkward by the sudden closure in space she herself took a step back "I'm sorry again. I didn't see you were behind me. Had I known…?" She looked sideways with shame.

"No need to apologise, He was clearly out of bounds and to be frank, I'm happy to know you can defend yourself. More women should take those classes. "He smiled at her.

She felt a blush come up again. She wasn't sure she was seeing what she was seeing. He was smiling. Feeling like this was a rare treat she blurted "You should smile more often too" out. Had she seriously just said that? She put her hand on her mouth in shock and saw his eyes widen.

"I'm sorry?" he asked her. Having a feeling of deja-vu she shook her head. "N-No, nothing." she stammered.

"I- uh, I need to go now." She blurted and turned around, ready to leave.

"Please wait!" He reached for her hand again to stop her. "Can I at least know your name?"

She stopped as soon as she felt his hand again, letting the question sink in. Thinking quickly, she went over the things that had just conspired. The dress, the punch, the picture, the awkward compliments, the blushing. She had made a horrible impression. Saying her name now would only make things worse and probably shame her family. It was also best that she didn't knew his either. That way she didn't have to tell her mother to whom exactly she had made such a blunder to.

Jolting out of her musings she realised that probably quite some time had passed. She turned around towards him and put a finger to her lips. "Let's keep a secret." She winked, trying to keep it playful. "I won't tell you my name as I don't need to know yours, All right?"

He looked at her a little startled. But then smiled a little mischievous and bended over a little in a bow. She realised he was still holding her hand and felt her eyes widen as he pulled her hand towards his lips. He gently kissed the top of her knuckles and smiled to her. "All right, miss mysterious. A gentleman never kisses and tells."

Okay, time to go Momo. She told herself. As she quickly took back her hand he subtly let go off and practically ran out of the room to hide her unmistakable blush.

Today was a day to remember. And remember it she would. Not only because her mother found out about the dress fiasco, but also because she had begged Jirou to send her a copy of the picture and she now saved it as a screen saver.

* * *

Shouto watched her leave with a chuckle. He had seen her blush as soon as the words had left his mouth. Not knowing what came over him and put his hand through his hair with a sigh. He then put it against his face knowing he was also hiding a blush of his own.

He knew why she didn't want to say her name. He actually figured it would have been better not to know, as his father would also want to know what had conspired here. But he still couldn't help wanting to know it himself. She had made quite an impression on him, and not only because of the dress, or the elbow. Good thing he had quite a few lessons in kickboxing himself or that punch would have done a lot more damage.

He figured it was time to leave the party as well. It was getting quite late and frankly, he figured the most interesting person had already left.

As he sat in a car that brought him home as he went over the things that happened. He looked at his hand that had touched hers twice now. He then brought it to his mouth and leaned on it with his chin while his elbow rested on the window sill. He watched the wet drops fall down the window as he drank in the perfume of the mysterious girl that lingered on his hand. He wasn't a perfume guy. But this tropical mix of coconut and something else would go great with his after shave. Thinking perhaps the next party, he would take out the bottle and use it. For research purposes off course.

He chuckled as he remembered Midoria's words. Yes, He did find someone that matched him perfectly quite literally.

* * *

Hello Everyone!  
I should not do this.. But it got stuck... So I HAD to write it out.  
I'm totally in love with this show. And the Characters. But I do not own any of them!  
I'm really open about the ships anything goes really, But I guess Todomomo tips my cake!

Hope you enjoy my newest fic!


	2. A second Try

_Shouto learns about perfume and its consequences and Momo has a wardrobe problem._

 _Here you go guys, 15 pages of fluff ready for you. I think I broke a new record._

 **A second try**

Here he was, standing in front of the mirror, again.  
Was he going to make a habit out of it?

He looked at his right hand, in which he was holding his phone. It had a few messages from his friends.  
He should have never told them about the encounter 3 months ago he had at the party.

He should have never told them about the raven haired mysterious beauty he tried to help, let alone that she didn't even need his help any more than he would.

He should DEFINITELY have never told them about the perfume she had, and that he was curious about how it would mix with the one he had. He tried to hide it, that as a chemist, it was only natural curiosity. But as much as he tried to hide it, his friends as much as himself, knew it was a bad lie.

And most of all. He shouldn't have EVER told them he was anxious to meet her again and if she would even be there, let alone look for him as much as he would look for her.

Yet he did.  
He scrolled though the chat he had with his two best friends and stopped near the ending to read the last messages:

Deku:

\- _\- Just put it on Shouto, even if she isn't wearing the same perfume as before. Women love that stuff._

Ingenium:

\- - _Midoriya-kun is right. Remember last time you used that bottle?_

Shouto sighed and looked at his other hand in which he was holding that said bottle.

He got the bottle from his sister as a present. She said he needed to man up and get himself a girl already, so she got him the most expensive bottle she could find. He had heard of the label and he couldn't say he didn't like the way it smelled. But so far he had only worn it twice. And both times where a disaster.  
Once was on the day itself, because his sister insisted on putting it on as soon as he unwrapped the Christmas present.  
He had stared at the bottle of Armani uninterested and with an eyebrow raised, before she took it out of his hand and sprayed a generous amount around his neck before he could even realise what had happened.

As it was a company party, he swore women had actually shown interest in him way more than usual.  
He tried to wash of the smell but it lingered for 3 days after that. Each day his fellow (female) employees asked him what he what he was wearing, that she should wear it more often and how come he changed his hair (which he didn't) or how nice his tie looked (which was a regular grey colour).

It made him feel uncomfortable and was happy when everything turned to normal and people ignored him again.

The second time he wore it was when it was his mothers' birthday.  
This time he only sprayed on a small amount of it on, so he wouldn't have the trouble afterwards at work.  
But as soon as he entered the hospital and walked to the reception. He tried to ignore the people staring after him. He convinced himself it was the usual scar staring, or the huge pack of flowers he was carrying as a gift.

Even his mom chuckled when he entered and asked if he had a date afterwards. She said he looked more and more like a man and wondered when he would bring in the girl with him.  
This embarrassed him greatly and he swore to never open that bottle again.

Until now.

Shouto:

\- _\- Yes, I know. But what If she isn't there. Things could get… weird._

He knew his friends and that they would understand what they meant.  
As soon as he had typed his message he saw the usual 3 dots appearing, that where indicating someone was typing. Both messages appeared almost instantly.

Deku:

- _\- Don't sweat it. From what I heard she will definitely be here._

Ingenium:

\- - _You worry as much as I do. The only thing to do is try and find out._

Deku:

 _\- - There*_

 _\- - What Ida-san said. Knowing you you'll regret it afterwards._

Shouto bit his lip and stared at himself again in his reflection.

He had taken out the best suit he had, which was dark blue. He had a dark red shirt on with thin stripes on it, with a grey/silver tie and matching shoes.  
He cocked his head sideways once and concluded this was the best he was going to get.  
He put down the bottle and typed a single message into his cell phone.

Shouto:

\- - _It's not worth the trouble. But thanks you guys._

He then slit his phone in his back pocket and straightened up. He took his collar of his vest and pulled it once.  
He breathed in once and then breathed out slowly. He could do this. What could go wrong?

He smiled at himself to practice his usual polite smile and walked self-confidently towards the door.  
It closed with a soft thud behind him.  
You could hear his phone ping behind the closed door, a bit of a muffled sound and a curse.

Suddenly the door opened. He sped inside, took the bottle from the shelf once more and left the room with the bottle in hand. He was still holding his phone in the other.

Deku:

\- _\- Kacchan says you're a wuss._

* * *

"You're going to kill the guy!"

"You're overreacting…"

"I AM NOT, YOU'RE NOT GOING LIKE THAT AND THAT'S FINAL!"

Momo sighed onto her laptop. She was currently skyping with her best friend who was abroad. She wanted to show her the outfit her mom made her wear for the party this evening.

"I don't have a choice Ji-, my mom said I had to wear this one, because I rebelled at my last dress…"

"I don't care Yaomomo! I can't let you go like that in good conscience." Jiro had crossed her arms and looked at her friend with a stern face.

"What's with all that yelling, you all right Jiro?" A voice on the other side of the screen sounded concerned.

"No! Don't enter. This scene is off limits to innocent eyes!" Jiro had turned sideways and rose her arm in a protective way, her other was obviously turned towards the screen in hopes of constructing the view from her concerned boyfriend.

"After last night, you can hardly call us innocent, can you?" the boy grinned as he came into view of the camera.

"Hello Denki" Momo chuckled.

Kaminari's head whipped sideways with a startled look. "Yaomomo! Sorry… I didn't know you where skyp- "

The man fell silent and stared at the screen with wide eyes.

Jiro face palmed.

Momo bit her lip.

"You…. its a little overkill, don't you think?" He suddenly crossed his arms pensively and rose an eyebrow.

"That's what I keep telling her." Jiro suddenly stood up and turned Denki around. "Now please leave us to it, so I can sort this mess out." She not so generously pushed him out of the door. Denki quickly got in a "later Yaomomo!" before the door smashed in his face.

Momo chuckled again but got serious once Jiro sat behind the screen.

"Talk." Was the only thing she said as she crossed her arms, again.

Momo sighed and explained how her mother found out about the dress and that even though it was an (unintentional) success. She was still angry about how she tried to rebel out of the promised she made.  
So she had to make a new promise. She could only wear a Yaoyozuru original that was the most recent one.

Little did she know it would take 3 months before the next party, and the only outfit's that were made in that time where a lingerie line. So now she was stuck with a dress that looked more like it belonged in the bedroom than in a ballroom.

When she tried to explain that to her mom, however she only said: "At least this time you'll actually come home with someone." And no more comment added to that.

Momo started to pace around the room as she talked. She stopped in front of the ceiling high mirror in her living room and took in the view.  
She was wearing a dark red leather dress that went all the way down to her heels. It had a beige striped belt in the middle that was a bit tilted.  
The split on her side reached until her thigh, and the split in the front. Well… that one reached her navel. Her shoes where the same red colour and were ankle boots.

She felt really uncomfortable in the whole outfit. But it was the best one she had from the whole pile. Or at least the only one "decent" enough.

Jiro stared at her lost in thought. She had her hand on her chin the whole story and sighed once she was done. She then moved her hand to her temple and pressed it.

Momo sat back behind the laptop and bit her lip again.

"At least it looks good on you, but it's seriously way to open. Did she say something about editing it?"

Momo shook her head. "No, but if I change it too much she's going to notice, and I don't know what she will do if I screw it up again."

"So we need to change it enough that it's still a Yaoyorozu, but we need to make it more tasteful."

Momo though about that. "I could make it look like a corset. But lace it in front. It will still be open, but at least everything will be stuck."

Jiro nodded. "You think you can manage that?"

Mono nodded as well. "If it's a light colour, like the beige, it will still look natural. But even if I start now, I'll be late to the party."

"Better late than naked." Jiro simply shrugged. "Either way. He'll definitely notice you."

"I don't know who you're talking about." Momo blushed a little as she disappeared from the screen to change into something more comfortable.

"Like you don't." Jiro chuckled.

"You think he'll be there?" Momo appeared again on the desk, paired with her sewing box and the leather outfit. She got to work immediately.

"I'm sure he will be. His eyes were glued to you almost the whole evening. I saw him look at you even before he turned all heroic."

"That was because of the colours". Momo blushed a little.

"Perhaps." Jiro nodded. "But you have to say. You guys looked amazing together. Make sure you get his name this time."

Yaomomo sighed. "I'm not sure I want to give it to him in this outfit." She held up the fabric and got to work again.

Jiro chuckled. "I'm sure he won't mind as much as you do."

Momo let her head fall onto the desk with and "urgh".

This made Jiro laugh a little.

"You will message me as soon as you see him, all right?" Jiro turned serious again.

"Sure. As soon as I can." Yaomomo turned towards the screen with a smile.

"Good. It'll make me feel better about the outfit if I know Mr. Heroic is there."

"You really trust him don't you?" Momo felt herself relax.

"Any man that helps against Grape juice is a good man in my book." Jiro made a fist in the air.

"Speaking of great men." It was Momo's turn to grin. "How about you tell me about last night?"

Jiro turned bright red first. But then grinned and turned to an excited whisper as she told her tale to her stressed out friend.

* * *

Shouto looked around the room for the fifth time. He wasn't really talking to anyone, he was only lingering around a stand up table and fingered his Champaign glass.  
The party was in full swing and even if the guests where still coming in, he didn't peg her for the being late kind of girl.

He felt himself get a little disappointed when he lowered his eyes towards his glass again and let out a silent sigh. Why did he even think she would show up? Why did he even go through the trouble of putting on the perfume in the first place?

A ping made him reach towards his pocket and he slowly took out his phone to scroll through the messages again.

Deku:

- _\- Did she arrive yet?_

Ingenium:

\- - _Did you really think he would be on his phone if she did?_

 _\- - Look, he saw this message._

Deku:

\- _\- Do you think she'll be coming? Isn't it late yet? Man I wish I could be there..._

Ingenium:

\- - _It's a closed off party Midoria-kun. Only the highest of ranks where invited._

The conversation made him smile a little. At least he had his friends to talk to this time. Long live social media.

Shouto:

\- _\- No not yet. I don't think she'll come._

Deku:

\- _\- Sorry man. Maybe she wasn't invited?_

Ingenium: 

\- - _Or a previous engagement?_

Deku:

\- _\- She could just be late? Are you going to wait?_

Shouto: 

\- _\- It would be rude to leave now… It's only been an hour and a half._

Ingenium:

\- - _He would insult the host._

Shouto:

\- - _I'll keep you guys posted._

Shouto put away the phone again and decided to look around once last time before deciding to go socialise. After all this was what his father expected of him. But he barely had time to put away his phone because a rather loud voice made him freeze on everything he was doing.

"TODOROKI-KUN!"

A shiver went through his whole body and he swore the temperature in the room dropped 10 degrees. He turned around just in time to catch the woman who quite literally threw herself into his arms.

"Toga-san." He pried her arms from around his waist to try and get her off him. "Always a pleasure." He tried to smile politely as he took in the girl in front of him. She was wearing her blonde hair in 2 side buns on either side of her head. She was wearing a short beige dress that let out her legs in the hope of making her seem a little taller, for she was quite petite for her age. The dress was adjourned with quite a lot of jewels of which he was sure where probably very expensive.

"You never called!" She huffed as she finally stood up straight and put her hands in her sides.

Shouto didn't know what to say. He'd never been good with social contact, let alone women.  
The only reason he knew this girl because his father made him go on arranged marriage dates. Two to be exact. One with a small green haired girl, she was kind and it was a pleasant conversation. But she was honest and told him she had actually only agreed to this to ease her mother's worries and nagging. She actually already had a boyfriend but she was too shy to tell her family yet.

Shouto completely understood and they had a politely fun time chatting about the rich families they knew and their gossips.

The second one was none other than the lady in front of him. Himiko Toga. Daughter of a rich hospital chain director (not the one his mother went to, luckily) but he had a vague suspicion she also had ties to the mafia. Not something you spoke of in the open but still it was pretty obvious for anyone who dared to look closer.

This however was not the reason he dreaded meeting her again, or in his defence, never 'called.'

The first reason was she was very clingy. He noticed this when she constantly tried to touch him in any way she could during the 'date'.

The second reason was that she was very loud and demanding. Everyone had to hear and agree to what she was saying at all times. This annoyed him greatly because he on the other hand liked the quietness and the anonymity. Something she was very good at ruining apparently, if you could tell by the whispers now going around at the party.

The third reason is because he quite plainly told his father that he was not in the least interested in this girl. And even his father sighed openly at this. His father rarely showed any type of interest in his relationships or tastes. But he clearly expressed that it was a shame. For he didn't like to anger her father.  
This concluded in the last reason he didn't like this woman. She was obviously a daddy's girl who hated to be wronged.

He breathed in and out once to brace himself for interaction with this lady.

"I do apologise, but I've been quite busy lately." He tried to smile, hoping she fell for it.

"Oh lighten up." She took his arm in hers and leaned against him. "I was only teasing. I know you would have a perfectly good reason to- "She stopped herself and looked at him from top to bottom.

He swallowed openly and cursed himself for the one thing he had actually looking forward to today. He should never listen to his friends.

"You smell good. Is that a new perfume?"

Before he got to answer her question she continued to babble happily. "You probably knew I was coming and did something like this to impress me." She winked at him.

"Silly Shouto, can I call you Shouto? Shouto, you know you don't need to try so hard for me. I was charmed from the moment we first met, you know this…-"

Shouto stared at her with open surprise. He knew women seemed to like this smell, but now he was sure of it. He would toss the bottle out of the window as soon as he could. This was turning out to be the worst night of his life.

He sighed openly as he let the girl ramble, too tired to even shake her off his arm. He looked around in hopes of seeing the Raven haired girl again, but noticed a crowd had formed around him and Toga. He looked around the crowd and felt all hope of ever finding her again fade into the distance. They were all openly staring at them and whispering his name. There was no way he could ever look past these people whom now seemed interested in everything he did now that it was finally out whom he was.

* * *

Momo breathed in and out once before she stepped out of the car that drove her to the entrance.

She had never raced so hard to finish an outfit before but she was proud of what she had done.  
It was still pretty sexy compared to what she usually wore. But she was confident it was at least more tasteful then before and actually quite suiting for a party. She wasn't sure if she did or didn't want to run into the Mystery man in this outfit yet. But at least she made it before it got too late to enter with style.

Taking a beige shawl with her to cover her shoulders and cleavage a little she let it hang around her arms and entered the building.

The first thing she noticed about the party is when she entered, all of the women where huddling on one side of the room. She rose an eyebrow but shrugged it off and waited near the entrance before a waiter offered her a glass of Champaign. She took it with a polite thank you and made her way across the room towards an empty stand. She put down the glass after taking a sip and looked around.

Feeling a little glad all of the women were gone, she took her time to take in her surroundings and search for a certain familiar face.

Her smile faltered quickly however, when she failed to notice the white and red streaks in any of the remaining male men. Her attention diverted towards the side of the room where everyone seemed to animatedly talk to each other about something that was happening over there.

Feeling a little curious she leaned in a little to hear the conversation next to her. A blonde man with obvious fake eyelashes was talking to a girl she almost didn't see at first. Boy did she blend into the room.

"Yeah, I heard Todoroki-san has finally graced himself with his presence." The man told the woman. He seemed rather proud of that fact.  
"Really? I wondered when he would show up. Did you know this is his second party?"

Momo suddenly lost interest in the conversation and sighed openly.  
Off course this was about THE great Todoroki son that everyone seemed to want to suddenly befriend. Feeling a little let down she wondered if she should have just declined the invitation. Knowing her luck a run in with a person of this importance could only lead to disaster.

Perhaps Mr Mysterious wasn't even invited to the party, after all she didn't know his status or anything else about the man. Lost in thought she drained her glass absent mindedly and at an alarming rate. She suddenly noticed when it was empty that being so rushed about the costume, she hadn't done to the bathroom for over 7 hours. And draining a glass this fast was obviously not doing her well.

She left her stand rather abruptly to search for the bathroom, making a mental note to next time search for the bathroom sign before she drained glasses like a drunk.

Finally finding the room she quickly went inside.

After washing her hands she stared at herself in the mirror to see if everything was still in place she sighed at her image. She didn't look forward to going inside again for she dreaded a run in with the most famous and dangerous man before she was decent, but she could hardly leave the party when she only entered.

Not to mention she had no indication at all that the man she was looking for was even present at the party. Luckily everyone seemed preoccupied about the Todoroki boy enough so her dress didn't stand out to much.

Totally lost in thought she left the bathroom. She opened the door to the inside and stepped out without actually paying attention to her surroundings. Had she though, she would have noticed a man running straight at her as he had just turned his head to see if he was still being followed.

The collision wasn't pretty. Luckily both had great reflexes as he had grabbed her side to keep her from falling down right after she hit against his chest and she had the time to grab on to his shirt with one hand to keep herself upright. He pulled her up a little harder than she expected as she fell against his chest with her eyes closed and her nails digging into his shirt. He closed his remaining hand around hers to keep her steady.

She noticed two things.

The first one was how broad and muscled this man was as she leaned against him.

The second was how good he smelled. She recognised the smell as Armani. Because she had one that fitted very well with this one. For some reason, she felt lucky that today she was wearing this.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up bewildered as to whom was hugging her so tightly.  
She felt a blush come up and a stifled a gasp as she stared into the heterochromatic eyes she had been looking for earlier this evening. He smiled down at her gently, seemingly relieved.

"I- We- You-." She stammered. Great Momo, way to express yourself.

"I'm so sorry, Are you all right?" He suddenly asked her. But strangely enough, he didn't let go. Not that she wanted him to.

"Yes I-…" She started. She slowly let go of his vest and noticed he was holding her hand. She used her other hand to put it against his chest and gave him a polite push to make some room between them. He quickly let go of her, as if he only noticed the proximity just now.

She put a loose strain of hair of her ponytail behind her ear as she took a step back. "We have to stop meeting like this."

A chuckle escaped the man as he opened his mouth to say something.

"-OTO!?"

The yell startled both of them as they both looked towards to origin of the sound, which appeared to be behind him.

A small curse escaped the man and she shifted her gaze towards him again. She noticed he was frowning.

"Shouto?! Where are you?!"

Shouto? Was that his name? There seemed to be no concern in the voice, only slight annoyance but before she could analyse what was really going on. She felt him grab her hand and uttered a single word.

"Run"

He ran past her and before she processed what had happened he had pulled after him. They sped down the corridor and up the stairs of the huge building. The mansion they were currently in was huge and seemed to function as a hotel of some kind, for from what should could tell by the blur of the doors, they seemed to be numbered.

He suddenly stopped near once of them and opened it quickly. He walked inside and she followed swiftly. The room was dark so she couldn't really tell what was in it yet, because he closed the door as quickly as it had opened and pressed her and himself against the door.

They were both breathing heavily and she vaguely noticed him pressing her against the door. She tried to look around but only the moon seemed to illuminate the room. She therefor turned towards the man in question. "What was-?"

He suddenly put a hand in front of her mouth and put his finger with his other hand against his lips in a hushing gesture. She fell quiet as she tried her best not to blush by his close proximity and his warm hand against her lips. She simply nodded and listened. She suddenly heard footsteps faintly in the beginning of the hall. "Search the rooms, he couldn't have gotten far!" It was the same voice she had heard before.

She looked down at the doorknob which was right next to her hand. She lifted her hand and twisted the key slowly into the lock, giving them a soft 'click' of satisfaction. A few seconds later she felt someone rattle the door and then continue on. She then looked up and noticed he was smiling at her. Gratitude clearly showing on his face.

Time seemed to pass slowly, and what had seemed like an eternity, she finally noticed something important. She had been holding her breath from the moment he put his hand on her lips.

This, paired with the run they had just done, meant she was out of breath to begin with, which brought her to her next dilemma. She needed to breathe. She tried to grab his attention and put her hand around his arm but he seemed oblivious to her problem and simply continued to stare at the door as if he could see through it.

She tried to breathe through her nose, but his hand was rather large, as he was a man, making the task harder and she was panicking a little. Deprived of air and not thinking straight, she did the only thing she could think of to try and grab his attention. So she closed her eyes and-

* * *

Shouto didn't expect to run into her quite like that.  
He didn't expect to run into her at all. Not that he had much time to process what had happened. For at the moment he was too focussed on keeping silent and staying hidden. He strained his ears to listen what was happening in the hallway. After what seemed like an eternity, he figured they had passed far enough to be safe.

He sighed in relieve and turned to the girl he had so graciously pinned against the door: "Okay, They seem to have pas-"But he felt something unexpected.

His eyes widened and retracted his hand immediately. He stared at her wide eyed and noticed she breathed in rather loudly.

"Did you just-?!" He started and then stared to his hand, not sure if to be disgusted or to be blushing. "You licked my hand!" He stated.

"I'm Sorry! But I needed air! "She looked at him with big eyes, he wasn't sure if it was amusement or guilt or a mixture of both. But the glare alone made his heart skip a beat.

She suddenly reached for something near her thigh, he followed the movement which caused him to finally notice what she was wearing.

What was she wearing? He had never, ever seen a dress like that before. But she looked good in it. Very good even. As he drank in the image, he suddenly felt guilty about staring to much… and a little protective. Wasn't she cold? Why would she wear a cleavage like that? Was it another fashion statement? Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him, it was dark after all.

As his mind was currently occupied he almost missed the fact that she had taken his hand once again until he felt a cool liquid into his palm.

"Here, it's disinfectant." She explained, as she massaged the liquid onto his hand.

Too flabberghasted about everything what was happening he let her. The gesture was soothing and he felt himself relax. She suddenly stopped and handed him a napkin of sorts. It was the same blue colour as her ponytail ribbon had been in her last dress, was it her favourite colour? "You can use this to wipe it off if you like."

She took a step back and he suddenly wondered where she got all of that material. After all, she wasn't wearing much. And the dress was pretty tight around her body, so not much hiding places. Could she make stuff appear? Feeling his mind wander to somewhere he shouldn't he shook his head and took the napkin. "Thanks?"

She cleared her throat and clicked on the light. "So." She started as she walked around the room. She placed herself on the foot end of the double bed that seemed to fill the room. "Shouto, huh?" She looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

Great, Thanks Toga. Not the way he wanted her to find out his name. He looked down at the napkin he was holding and noticed something on it. He held closer to his eyes and noticed the letters Y and M in nice embroidery.

"You have me at a disadvantage." He smiled and held up the napkin. "All I have is Y and M?"

She looked startled and then bit her lip looking towards the window. He couldn't help but think she looked cute just now.

"Yaomomo" She answered him, but her voice was so soft he almost didn't catch it.

He blinked twice and then smiled. "I didn't expect you to tell me so easily." He joined her on the bed, but left a respectable distance between them.

"It's only fair, it's a nickname though." She explained as she looked back at him.

He only nodded.

"So, Do I get to call the police on you? Or on them?" She gestured the door with her head and a smile.

He sighed. "Right, that." Time to explain.

"As you probably noticed, she's not an ordinary woman." He started, and Yaomomo nodded, she put her hands near her sides as she leaned back a little leisurely. He looked away. Didn't she know her outfit made it hard to focus? He tried to look at her face but figured it was easier to just look in front of him. He leaned with his elbows on his legs and put both his hands together as he explained how he met her on an arranged marriage date and how she had been very clingy towards him. "And when we met again today, she kind of quite literally put her hand on my behind."

He heard her gasp and turned to her surprised. He felt his heart warm up a bit, he kind of expected her to laugh at him, but she seemed to take him quite seriously. This made him feel at ease.

"That's sexual assault!" She seemed a little angry.

He smiled sadly. "Try and explain that to other people." He shrugged.

She crossed her arms and nodded. Her silence urged him to continue.

"So when I told her, no as politely as I could. She wouldn't take it." He sighed and closed his eyes.

She stared at him wide eyed. "I would have just slapped her."

He chuckled at the thought. "That would have been nice, but sadly I cannot do that." He put his fingers against each other and stared at them. "Our fathers are business partners you see, and I can't really insult her."

She opened her mouth to protest. But seemed to think twice about it and simply nodded.

"So I did the next best thing, and the only not very manly thing I could." He smiled at her awkwardly.

She nodded sympathetically. "You ran?"

He let his head hang. "I ran."

"Into me." She chuckled.

The sound made his stomach jump and he looked up at her. She had her hand to her mouth as she giggled into her fist.

"Yes, into you." He smiled too. "You had startled me, so I wasn't really thinking straight. Sorry for dragging you with me."

She smiled at him. "It's all right, I got your name out of it."

He lifted his eyebrow, did she want to know his name? Was she possibly also wondering about him? "Well I got yours too, so it's a win-win." He grinned.

She seemed startled and cleared her throat. He watched her as she stood up and walked towards the window. She opened it and stared outside. "I'd actually like to thank you for getting me out of there." She sighed.

He felt his stomach drop. "You didn't want to come?" He joined her near the window.

She looked down towards the dome below, it was bright and lit and you could see the people below talking and dancing. Soft music reached their ears.

Her face twisted into a grin, but it was more like an annoyed one. "It's not that." He noticed her shiver a little. He swiftly took of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

She held one side of it surprised and looked at him. He simply shrugged and smiled. She smiled back and gave him a soft thanks as they both looked at the dome again.

"It's my mother." She just stared in front of her. "As you probably already noticed, my dress style isn't that.. Normal." She let a wry smile grace her features.

He wanted to say something but decided against it. He simply nodded.

"When we first met, I was rebelling against my mother for forcing me to come to these parties." She continued. "But she found out and made me wear this. I'm a little scared to go back in there."

He nodded again. "For people like that purple haired man."

She looked at him surprised. "You're quick to catch on, it's my own fault really. I shouldn't have rebelled in the first place."

He simply nodded once more, to let her know he understood.  
They feel into a comfortable silence as they stared at the dome.

"You know what I hate about these parties the most?" She was still looking at the dome. He turned to look at her, waiting for her to continue.

"The politics involved. " He rose an eyebrow and she looked at him before she continued.

She then gestured her hand towards the dome. "Like, you're supposed to know all of the faces involved, so you don't make a fool out of yourself against the wrong person."

Before he could answer however, she continued. He felt the frustration in her voice so he let her.

"There's this guy, I have a business meeting with him next week. But I have no idea what he looks like. But I'm not supposed to insult him, because that would cause a lot of problems for my family, how do I know I haven't insulted his rich stuffed snobby ass already?!" she had her arms crossed while she leaned on the window sill. But she dropped her head in her arms with an obviously annoyed "urgh".

He chuckled at her frustration and put a comforting hand on her arm. She looked up at him a little startled but let him. "It's another reason I'm scared to go back." She sighed.

"I think I get what you mean." He turned towards the dome. "At least you don't know if you haven't or have insulted him. I on the other hand am already doomed."

She smiled at him sadly. He tried to console her further with a joke. "I mean, how do you politely refuse a woman without insulting her?"

She looked at the sky pensively.

He noticed her thinking. Cursing to himself, he didn't expect her to take the question seriously, he simply wanted to try and make her feel better, and that she was not the only one. But before he could explain that she suddenly looked at him.

"It might sound stupid. But I might be able to help you there." She smiled.

He stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Can you dance?" She turned to him with a grin. He simply stared at her with his mouth agape and blinked twice.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked her as they walked back towards the door.

"Only if you are." She answered as she returned the jacket to him. She tightened her shawl around her shoulders.

Shouto thought about it as he put the javket back on. Was he? Did she know what would happen if they did? What would happen actually? A small ping interrupted his thoughts and he quickly reached for his phone. She did the same.

"It's me." She held it up and typed something in it. "Sorry, I just have to tell my Jirou that I found you."

"Oh, the girl from the other party." He replied. She nodded and continued to type. But his mind lagged a little and he felt himself get warm. He didn't mean to blurt it out but his curiosity got the better of him. "Wait, you were looking for me?" He rose an eyebrow.

He noticed she turned bright red.

* * *

Yaomomo, you are an idiot. She thought to herself as she hid her face behind her phone. What would she say now? Off course I've been looking for you because I've been looking forward to this for 3 months? Did that make her a stalker? Wait, how could she be a stalker if she didn't even know his name? Urgh, she had to still answer his question. But she didn't want to lie to him. Okay then, part of the truth.

She lowered her phone and looked at him. He was patiently waiting for an answer as he stared at her questioningly.  
She put away the phone and bit her lip. "Jirou was worried about the dress, and hence you rescued me the last time…" She shrugged.

He nodded. "Well, I didn't really do anything." He put his hand on the back of his neck awkwardly. " But thank her for the vote of confidence. I'll try my best to ward of the perverts."

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you." She smiled. He suddenly turned away rather quickly and put his hand on the door. "We should get going."

She wondered why he suddenly seemed so eager but she decided he probably wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

She felt a little happy that she could finally do something in return for him, but she did feel a little shy about the whole thing. At least this time she knew his name.

She watched him open the door and peek outside of the creek. Once he decided the coast was clear he opened the door fully and held out his hand. "Ladies first." He smiled.

She blinked twice and then smiled at him. She wasn't used to the gesture as no one did this anymore so she took his outstretched hand with a small curtsey. "Aren't you the gentleman." She smiled up at him as she passed.

"Got to live up to the name." He shrugged and he smiled back. She replied him with a chuckle as they left the room to head back to the ballroom.

As they reached the stairs he stopped in his tracks and turned toward her. "Yaomomo, you probably already know this, but I have to ask." He started.

She stopped and looked at him, she waited for him to continue. "I'm quite famous, so after this, you might find out my full name." He bit his lip and looked at her.

She simply smiled. Could he be more famous then her perhaps? She doubted it.

"Well, I have news for you mister." She pressed her finger to his chest. "I've got quite the name myself, so you might find out about mine first."

He seemed very surprised at that but he quickly regained his usual stoic expression, he even graced her with a rare grin. This made her heart skip a beat.

"Only you could make this into a contest, very well. We'll see who's the most famous." He continued down the stairs. She followed promptly "You've got yourself a contest, Shouto."

"We'll see." He answered her, as she looked at his broad back she could only smile to herself. Either way, after today, one of them isn't going to be able to hide their identity. This made everything even more excited.

They reached the ballroom way too soon for her liking and he turned to her again. He held out his hand once more. "Shall we?"

She smiled and nodded. They entered the room again and she noticed a lot of heads turned towards them again but she wasn't sure which of the two they were looking at.

As they had discussed, they waited for a song to end and a new one to begin before he turned to her. He bowed and held out an outstretched hand. "May I have this dance my lady?"

She blushed a little. She knew she told him to make it a grand gesture, but did he have to be so charming too? She took his hand however and curtsied once more. "I'd be delighted." She smiled at him and he led her towards the dance floor.

Soft music began to play but she only had eyes for him as he whispered near her ear." Are you ready?"

She tried to keep her blushing in check, but it was really hard as he was now closely next to her. She nodded once and looked down shyly. What was wrong with her? She had taken dance classes and she knew she was rather good at them. But this man and his charms, where throwing her off guard.

She stifled a gasp when he slit his arm (respectfully) around her waist and urged her closer to him. She complied and let her hand slide onto his arm. His other hand took hers as he held it up and he slowly guided her into a waltz.

Oh the irony. She swore to Jirou that she hated the waltz. It was way too complicated and she was so sure she would never liked to do this dance with anyone, ever.

That was until she met Shouto. She looked up at him as he focussed on her. He seemed to be such a natural at this as they glided across the room. She didn't even have to think about the steps as he led the dance perfectly. She felt herself get dizzy from all the turning (and probably from everything that had happened till now). So she decided to focus to her surroundings before she lost herself into the bliss.

She could tell people were staring at them and whispering things. She wasn't sure what they were whispering, but she knew it was about them. She suddenly wondered if he really could be more famous then her after all. Until she noticed a blonde woman, exactly like he had described, look at them with such venom in her eyes. She couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

He seemed to have heard it. "What's the matter?"

She smiled up at him. "Our plan is working. I think she saw you."

* * *

He rose his head slowly, as to not let it notice and roamed his eyes around the dance floor. He noticed her standing near the door, an insulted look on her face as she turned towards a man next to her. The man seemed to be startled as he hastily gestured towards the dance floor.

Shouto felt himself smile but he also felt something else. She suddenly leaned her head against his chest in a loving gesture. He felt a blush come up and panic a little. He had no idea how to handle this situation.

"Play along." She whispered. He swallowed once and nodded as her felt her hair tickle his chin. C'mon Shouto. Get a grip. He tried to concentrate on the steps but all he could do was drink in the sweet smell of her perfume. Shaking his head to keep himself to the plan, he dared to look around once more. He saw Toga finally notice their close proximity and how her face turned into anger. She suddenly turned, and stomped off towards the exit, leaving a flabbergasted man running after her.

He gave a small smile and turned his head down to tell the girl in his arms the good news. But before he could. She threw him off guard once more.

"Shouto?" the way she whispered his name made a shiver go over his spine.

"Yes?" He tried to keep his voice as steady as possible.

"You smell good." She sighed.

Shouto felt himself get hot inside. He had never blushed so hard in his life and felt lucky she wasn't looking up. Trying to keep his head cool he swallowed openly. He didn't know why he said the next words but they just felt nice and very fitting. He would never forget this day, and he would perhaps give the bottle another chance.

"So do you, Yaomomo."


	3. Third time means business

**Elevators, papers, parents and a magazine. All that's needed for a big and messy reveal.**

note: For those who read the previous chapter before the 18th of juli, a slight change has been made on the window scene. Nothing major, it's just a little joke in this chapter that returns and I forgot to add it in the previous chapter before I uploaded it.  
If you read it after this date, it has already been edited, so you will get it. (I hope)  
Please enjoy the chapter!

Momo was feeling a little nervous. She looked up at the huge dome above her as she walked through the nearly empty mall.  
She noticed vendors putting up their street signs as they started opening their doors and she smiled politely at those that greeted her.

She continued to walk as she looked around, wondering how long it would take for her to reach the centre of the mall.  
She noticed how smart it had been to put the business offices in the middle, so that almost every employee had to pass through at least half of the shopping mall before their reached their destination. She chuckled to herself thinking it was typical for a business director to come up with something like this.

Off course the owners had their own private parking, smack in the middle of the mall, below everything else, whereas most of the employees or visitors had to park in the underground parking's near the sides. She could have parked in the middle as well, as she had been an invited business guest, but she preferred to catch the view and the feel of the mall itself, so she could prepare herself should they ask questions about it.

She stopped near a widow when she saw herself in the reflection to see if everything was still in order. She put down her briefcase to straighten her grey jacket and redo her ponytail. She then pulled down her matching grey skirt that had ridden up a little and if her black pumps where still as spotless as before. Momo breathed in an out again content with her reflection. She could do this.

When she picked up her briefcase and took a step again she stopped when she noticed the window she had stopped before was a book shop, and something in the showcase caught her eye. She nearly pushed her face against the window to read the title of a cover more clearly.

Yes, she saw that correctly.

Momo checked her watch. She had enough time to wait for the store to open and still make it to the meeting she was supposed to attend. She would easily wait 10 more minutes. So she leaned with her back against the window and stared up at the 30 stories high building in the middle of the dome that rose up above everything. She wondered in awe what she was even doing here and if she would be able to sell herself as well as her mother hoped.

No, this was her chance to prove to them that she could do this.  
She clenched her fist and looked at it as she stood up straight again. She felt more than ready. She would show this harsh world, that Yaoyorozu Momo had finally brought out a line of clothing and that it would sell no matter which location. So why not aim for the top one?

A sharp ringing of a bell startled her as she looked sideways at the store clerk, whom seemed surprised to see her.

She smiled at him politely as she asked for a magazine that was in the showcase.

* * *

After leaving the shop, with the magazine in her hand, Momo quickened her pace to make up for the lost time so she could leisurely skim through the magazine, in search for the article that had caught her eye.

She held up the magazine with a smile. She didn't usually read these gossip magazines. But she had been looking for ANYTHING related to 2 days ago.  
It had been a Saturday evening, which meant on a Sunday, no releases. So today, on a Monday, the first prints of this weekend's party should be in at least one of them. And as she knew the Todoroki boy had been to her party, perhaps something about her mystery man should be in this magazine as well.

She smiled to herself, feeling a little proud.  
There was no way Shouto would have gotten her hands on this information first.  
She didn't peg him as a magazine reader either, but perhaps he might have been just as interested in this whole affair as she was. She hugged the magazine as she thought about the evening itself.

A small blush crept up her cheeks when she thought back on how close they had danced.  
Sure, it was to help him get rid of a stuck up woman that he couldn't refuse. But still. She couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of hope bloom as they had danced long after that said woman had disappeared through the front door.

Shaking her head to keep herself focussed, she stood up straight again and regarded the cover of the magazine. She read the cover as she reached the elevator near the building and had pressed the button going up. "Youngest Todoroki Boy finally gets a girlfriend?"  
She chuckled. It was a small headline, near the bottom of the page. She found it funny as this was actually huge news, but they also knew that any news or gossip about the Todoroki's never stayed on covers long. As the CEO of the company, Endeavour himself, immediately forbade any news being spread about them before it reached him first.

That's why most gossip magazines never included pictures or big headlines on covers, hoping to escape the ever watching eye of the CEO.

It never worked off course, but at least she already had her hand on this one. Plus she wasn't interested about that. It only made her sure about the fact that at least Shouto or her would be mentioned inside.

As the elevator door opened. She stepped inside and pressed the 20 button. She checked herself in the mirror again and sighed with relief she made it in time.  
She looked at the magazine once more as the elevator moved up. Should she read it now? Or after the meeting? What harm could it do to read it now? She was curious beyond belief and it would only distract her anyway. So she opened the magazine and started looking for the headline she wanted to read.

* * *

Shouto stifled a yawn as he closed the door behind him. He sighed once as he held up a clipboard he had just received from his father. On it where at least 30 papers he had to go through before the next meeting.

He checked his watch. More than an hour left. Plenty of time.

He straightened up and stretched himself out as he walked towards the elevator. His next meeting would be on the floor he was on now, but he wanted to get himself something to eat first.

His father had made him sit through 2 excruciatingly boring meetings just now before he even had a chance to get a decent breakfast. So he took the only chances he had to at least grab a small bite.

He pressed the elevator button as he reached it and looked at the clipboard once more.

At least this next meeting would prove to be at least a bit entertaining. He shouldn't laugh, but most of the people on this clipboard where unexperienced first timers who had come to sell their product to the company.

It's a little thing his father came up with.

Owning serval malls around the country and out, naturally they had to know which shops where in it. And which were doing well or not.  
So when one had to disappear for any reason, could be bankruptcy, even though he was proud of the company in the honesty they shared, they always helped their stores to the utmost abilities. Which is one of the reasons everyone wanted a spot in the mall. If it was the first, it was usually paired with drugs, or other things that were not legal. In that case the company took action and closed the store itself.

But most of the cases it was retirement. And being around as long as they were, there were always a few each year.  
Which meant new stores would have to come in place.  
This is where Shouto came in.

Being new himself (3 years of excellent meetings and numerous projects on his name still counted as new apparently) he was in charge of a little programme that held place once every six months.

This consisted for multiple reasons.

The main reason was to bring more 'youngsters' as his father would call it to the mall.  
And what better idea to bring youngsters to the shops as to let youngsters run them.

And so we come to the meeting that was supposed to take place in one hour.  
He regarded the clipboard and opened it to stare at the first paper.  
A boy was on it, He looked sturdy and had rather thick lips. His hair was spiky brown and he had a confident look on him. Shouto read his name, Rikido Sato.  
Shouto scanned the page, apparently he was from a family of bakeries and wanted to open one on his own called "Sugar rush". Shouto rose an eyebrow at the name. A few pictures of pastries where viewable and a sketch of the bakery, they did seem sugary indeed. He wondered how the health inspection let this one pass.

He skimmed the pages, it was no surprise to him how young everyone looked.

This was another reason for the meetings. It's hard to grow on your own when you live under your family's shadow, Shouto was the perfect example of that. So this was a way of helping them on his path. And part of the reason he agreed to screen all of them in a meeting where all of them would present themselves in the big theatre type room, and make their case.

So far 5 spots where available. And Shouto had to fill them in. So this meant a long and boring morning listening to 30 people trying to convince him why their store would make it above the others.

He skimmed the pages, roaming his hands through the edges and closed the clipboard with a sigh.

He frowned at something, thinking he had seen it wrong. So he opened it again and skimmed to the pages more slowly until he stopped near one of them his eyes opening wide. He almost yanked all of them loose out of the clip in his haste as he scanned the name on top of the page. He was reading it so intently he never heard the elevator Bing and someone step out until he clashed against them.

* * *

Momo looked at the magazine index as the elevator started humming in action. She looked for the headline she wanted and saw it on page 15.  
She quickly started skimming the pages, cursing this stupid magazine for only having page numbers only every 4 pages or so, leaving her on page 20 before skimming back.  
She was so entranced in her case that she only vaguely noticed the elevator ding and quickly looked up to see if she was on the right floor. The elevator light was on 20 so she nodded contently as she turned to her magazine again. She was about to open the magazine at the right page as she stepped out of the elevator, to engrossed in her quest to not see the man in front of her until she bumped into him.

It wasn't a hard bump. But she was so startled they both fell backwards, hitting their butts on the floor. Paper was surrounding them as it flew everywhere and her magazine was nowhere to be seen. But frankly, she didn't care about it anymore as she took in who was sitting in front of her, probably looking just as flabbergasted as she was.

Through the floating papers she made out the red and white streaks of hair as her eyes widened in recognition. Everything seemed as If in slow motion as She pointed towards the person in front of her, knowing fully aware that this was not polite, but she didn't care because at the moment as he was mimicking her movement. His heterochromatic eyes where mimicking her black ones in shock.

"Shouto!?"

"Yaomomo!?"

It had been said in sync.

Shouto had been the first to recover as he shook his head and quickly got up as if his pants had been on fire. He disregarded the pieces of paper and stepped into the elevator to offer her his hand.  
"Are you all right?"

She blinked at him once before she also regained her composure and took his outstretched hand politely, trying to keep a small blush at bay. Her heart had SO no been ready for this surprise encounter.

He pulled her up gently and she complied.

"I'm sorry, I was a little engrossed in my…" He put his hand at the base of his neck awkwardly until he noticed the scattered pieces around them. "…papers." He ended.

Momo also looked around horrified. She did this! Why was he apologising?

"I should be apologising!" she interjected as she crouched down to start picking them up. He was doing the same now. "I'm sorry! I was the one that ran into..." She stopped herself as she had picked up a handful of pieces and stacked them in her other hand only to stop as soon as she picked up one in particular. She stood up straight again and looked from the paper to him. "…you."

He rose together with her as he had picked up the rest and was putting them back on the clipboard. He stared at her with an awkward smile noticing what she was holding, not really sure how to react.

"Y-You… you know?" She stammered at him.

"Only just found out actually, right before we slammed into each other…. Again." He tried to lighten the mood, but clearly it wasn't working as she was simply staring at herself on the paper.

She cleared her throat and made an awkward smile while returning the stack. Her brain was working a mile a minute. Why did he have her data? Why did he have all of the candidates' data? Was he also a candidate? Was he a rival of her now? He slowly took the pile from her and watched her as she was trying to figure everything out.

As he slowly accepted the papers, he seemed very occupied in placing them back carefully onto the clipboard.

She turned to stare at him her eyes widening. She was still racking her mind until something clicked inside. No. This wasn't it. It couldn't be.

"You...You're…" She stammered.

He cleared his throat and smiled at her shyly. 'Yeah…It looks like you're my 10 o'clock miss Yaoyorozu."

She took a step back and put her hand to her forehead slowly. This wasn't happening. Her whole world started spinning as everything seemed to fall into place. The first party, why she hadn't seen him before that.  
The second party, why she didn't see him at first but everyone seemed to have seen him.

Why the name kept popping up as soon as they started dancing…

She took another step back, almost tripping again over her own briefcase as he reached for her to keep her uptight. He closed his hand around her wrist as she herself leaned her other hand against the elevator wall. His other hand was behind her back for comfort, feeling the clipboard against her back she regarded the man again. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

This was just her luck.  
The only boy she did not want to meet, turned out to be the boy she had been wanting to meet for over 3 months. This was wrong. Everything was wrong. She was supposed to make a good impression on him, not ruin every chance she had for a job, embarrass her family, and embarrass herself! She could go on, but before she could beat herself up even more however a small ding interrupted her train of thought.

They both looked up as the doors of the elevator opened again, not even noticing they had closed in the first place, nor when the elevator had started moving.

To tip off the cake, she wasn't even sure any more about what startled her the most. Running into Shouto? Hoping he wasn't who she thought he was? The fact that the person entering the elevator wasn't who she thought it was, and least of all. What the heck was HER mother doing next to The Big Boss, CEO of Todoroki Incorporated, and President of the Biggest Mall of the country, none other than Mr Endeavour Todoroki himself?!

"Shouto?" The heavy voice vibrated through the air, stiffening both of them.

"Father." The young man replied, as he bowed his head a little, his eyes never leaving the imposing figure in front of them.

Momo's gaze shifted from both the tall, red haired man to the two toned haired man and back. She felt her hairs spring up right and withheld a shiver from the tension in the air as she regarded the two men. She wasn't sure if she felt her heart sink from Shouto acknowledging her suspicions or from the fact that neither of them seemed to want to be in the other's presence.

"Momo? Are you all right?"  
Momo flinched at the mention of her name and turned to her mother. She took in a deep breath and gathered her thoughts before answering.

"Yes Mother." She crouched again to pick up her briefcase and stood up straight with a smile.  
"The elevator pressure made me lose my balance."

She gave Shouto a knowing look as he simply rose an eyebrow at her. He let her go and stood up straight again. He then turned to her mother with a bow. "Nice to meet you Mrs. Yaoyorozu"

Her mother blinked once and put her hand up to her cheek with a smile. "My, what a gentleman. Nice to meet you too."

It was Momo's turn to raise an eyebrow. She didn't know Shouto could be so smooth. But she was grateful for the distraction. Then she noticed he was actually smiling at her in the bow. It was a coy smile. Was this a challenge?

"I don't believe you've met my daughter yet, Mr Todoroki?" The woman gestured to Momo with a smile, she was looking at the red haired man.

If the low grunt the man gave was anything to go by, Momo thought this was her cue. She gave a curtsy to him and bowed her head a little. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Todoroki."

Shouto suddenly coughed, although it sounded more like he was covering up a snort. Momo turned to him with a sly smile. Was he laughing at her because she tried to one up him in a greeting?

Not noticing the glare they were getting, Endeavour made himself heard. "Have you two met before?"

The question startled both of them. Shouto seemed to be the first to recover as he nodded.  
"Twice, actually. At the parties."

Mr. Todoroki nodded shortly as if approving. Momo simply watched the exchange with wide eyes.  
Feeling her mothers' eyes bore into her for questions she concluded now was the best time to get out of there before she would have to answer something she didn't like.

She quickly looked at the floor they were on and saw the number around 1 light up. Feeling relieved, she concluded this was most likely the floor with some food on it. She needed coffee stat.

Shouto opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.

"Actually, I asked him the way to the cafeteria, just now." She quickly interjected before him.

He blinked at her twice. Obviously not getting the fact that Momo's blatant lie was just to get them out of here. This man had no idea what her mother was capable off, so she pushed the case a little in a small panic. Just a small one. Small enough to make a mistake apparently.

She took his hand and dragged him out of the elevator to prove her point. "Right, Shouto?"

The mention of his name seemed to have done the thing as he let her drag him out of it. "Yaomomo, wait." He called after her. But they had already turned a corner before the man had any chance of retaliating.

* * *

The elevator door closed on them as both parents simply stared at the now empty hallway.

Endeavour had already pressed the 20 button before they had started the conversation so the machine started running as soon as the door closed.

"I'm sorry, I must have heard it wrong… But did my daughter just call your son Shouto?"

If Endeavour had heard her, he didn't show. He simply turned his head towards the woman next to him and uttered a single word with a raised brow. "Yaomomo?"

The woman's head also turned towards the man, her eyes widening at the mention of her daughters nickname.  
Both were lost in thought as the elevator door dinged open again and Endeavour stepped out, only to hear something crunch under his foot.

He looked down to see a magazine lying open on the floor and he bend down to pick it up.

He stared at the open page as he made out the unmistakable face of his son that covered two whole pages. In his arms was the familiar raven haired girl he had seen seconds before.

He heard the woman next to him gasp with an "oh my." as he read the title of the article.

"Youngest Todoroki boy finally gets a girlfriend?" and the subtitle. "Party in full swing, as Todoroki Shouto finally makes a move."

He slowly turned to the woman next to him as he noticed she had started to smile. The smile slowly turned to a grin. He couldn't help but grin as well, as a plan started formulating in his head.

* * *

Shouto stared at the girl in front of her. Not polite, he knew. But she seemed way too preoccupied to notice.

She had been poking her coffee with a spoon for at least 10 minutes now as they sat there in silence.  
He found it intriguing how her expressions kept changing as she seemed to be lost in thought.

He regarded her outfit as she mused in silence. He had seen her wear 3 different styles in total, and he couldn't help but think she rocked all 3 of them with flair. Now he didn't know much about fashion. But that he didn't see sooner that this woman in front of him was a designer? He must have been blind.

Oddly enough. This obvious business outfit? I think he liked this one the most. He liked the other outfits, sure. But those had been… open…  
To say he didn't like those would be to question his manhood. But for some reason he didn't seem to like the fact that not only him, but a lot of other people could see what he was seeing. Like that little purple, pervert (for a lack of another name) for example.

No. The way the vest seemed to curve around her enough to make out her distinct feminine shape. Or the knee high skirt that closed around her… other curves… Oh for f*cks sake, yes he had been staring at her butt. He was still a young man and she was nothing if not gorgeous. And hot. And his type. Did he have a type? He didn't know. But he was finding out.  
Yes. He really liked this outfit on her. You could tell she was shaped, but he found it more alluring if you saw less to be honest. Might be strange, but it left more to the imagination. When did he turn into such a pervert? Okay, stopping this train of thought right now.

To make matters worse. Once they had reached their seats. The first thing she did was take off her vest. So now he was staring at a white (way too thin) blouse that clinged to her every curve. This woman obviously didn't know what she was doing to him.

Trying to find something to break the silence, Shouto cursed himself for being socially awkward enough to not being able to express himself.  
His worst idea though, is the next one.  
The Idea to crack a joke never hurt a fly right? Expect for the fact that his sense of humour had never been the best. He should have known that. But still.

"So…" He broke the silence and he noticed her head whipped up towards him pretty fast, as if she had forgotten he was sitting in front of him in the slightly busy cafeteria.

"About insulting my rich stuffed snobby ass?" He asked with a smile. "You were doing pretty great until you said that to honest."

He wanted to pat himself on the back for that one. One of his better jokes. At least until he heard the groan that emanated from the girl as she hit her head against the table pretty roughly to let her head hang.

His eyes widened immediately as he reached for her, but he was too late to do anything about it.

"It was a joke! Relax." He was panicking now.

She rose her head a little and was greeted with an awkward smile. "I'm sorry I said that. I didn't know I was talking about you at the time."

He sat back into his seat fully: "Yeah, I figured…"

She sat up too and regarded him silently.  
"At least we finally know who is more popular, right?" he gave her another one of his awkward smiles.

She also smiled at that. "That's an understateme-.." she started. But her face quickly changed into a surprised one.  
The gasp she let out startled him as she stood up quickly enough to make her seat topple behind her.

"The magazine!" She exclaimed. As she strode past him he quickly reached for her hand to stop her. Not sure what had just happened. He decided he'd let her calm down first and explain, before he rushed after her once more. She stopped when she felt his hand on her wrist and looked down at it before she looked at him, fear clearly present in her eyes.

"What magazine?" He offered.

Her eyes darted around the room. "The magazine I bought this morning!" Clearly impatient with his calm behaviour. He looked at her questioningly. "I was readying it before I bumped into you!" She looked at him again with a little annoyance.

"I didn't see a magazine in the elevator." He tried to assure her. What could possibly be so urgent about a magazine?

"It must still be on the floor…" She calmed down a little. But then panic rose again and she turned to him fully. She put her other hand on the one that was holding her wrist. "Shou-… Todoroki-kun!" She corrected herself. "What floor where our parents headed?!"

He flinched at the mention of his name. Feeling a little sad about the fact they were no longer on a first name basis. He understood why she needed to change that fact, now that their identities where known, but she could at least still call him Shouto when they were alone. He needed to make that clear to her.

"Please still call me Shouto when we are alone. I'm not really fond of my last name to be honest." He looked at her sadly. She seemed startled by the suggestion but nodded slowly.

"And I believe it was the 20th floor." He answered her question.

Her legs seemed to give out on her as he reacted quickly enough to hit an arm around her waist to catch her. What is it with them and running into each other or falling over?

"This is bad… this is really bad." She muttered as he led her towards her chair again. He balanced his foot enough to lift up the chair to its original state and helped her sit down again.

He wondered what could possibly be so bad about a magazine. And their parents seeing it?  
When he had sat her down he was about to turn to his place to ask her just that, but she had grabbed his sleeve in panic. "Shouto. What if they find it?!"

He kneeled before her, holding her hand in both of his. "Yaomomo." He tried. Checking to see if he was still allowed to call her that. She flinched a little but didn't object. "Care to tell me what this is about?"

Her face flushed a little and he couldn't help but think that she was cute. She nodded and he let go of her hands to return to his seat. She started talking immediately when he sat down.

"This morning, I took a walk through the mall to try and catch a vibe from it." He nodded at her. Thinking it was a little impressive. She was really serious about this job, wasn't she.

"I passed a book shop and bought a magazine." She continued. He noticed how she started talking faster and faster. As if she was embarrassed about something and wanted to get it over quickly.

"I bought it because of the small bet we made, but off course I didn't know who you were back then. But I knew the Todoroki boy, meaning you. Which I didn't know. Was on the party and his name was in the title…" Okay. Now she was rambling. He withheld a chuckle until he let the words sink in.

"Wait, wait." He interrupted her, holding one hand up. "My name was on the cover?"

She suddenly turned a lovely shape of pink that even covered her ears and nodded.

That was impossible. His father strictly forbade anything that was even remotely connected to his name and gossip. And why was she blushing so fiercely? Even though it was adorable. He felt like he needed more information. "What was the title?" He asked her.

She hid her face behind her hands. "Youngest Todoroki Boy finally gets a girlfriend?" She quietly said. He almost didn't catch it. He stared at her pensively. He didn't get a girlfriend? Where did that gossip come from? Unless… he felt the click in his head as he slowly leant back in his seat.

"I bought it because I saw your name. And I thought it might contain some information about the party we were on. But I didn't expect the article to be about…" she stopped as she swallowed, her face still half hidden behind her hands.

Now it was his turn to blush as he filled in the blanks. The article would be about them. She was the girlfriend they were talking about. "…Us" He ended her sentence slowly.

She nodded as she let her hands fall onto the table slowly. He let his hand go through his hair as he was lost in thought. This magazine was dangerous. And if it's anything magazines loved more than gossip. It was photographic materials. And if they have gotten a hold of a picture of them dancing the way they did without any real story. Things could turn out for the worse if his father was involved.

He finally understood her panic. He let out a silent curse and noticed how this startled her. Turning to her again he decided now wasn't the time for rash behaviour. "Sorry."

She shook her head. "I'm the one who is sorry. I should have never bought it… But I was a little curious about your identity. I didn't know I would find it out before I had gotten the chance of having a look at it. "He nodded to her. Still lost in thought.

He then sighed as he leaned back once more. "Nothing we can do about it at the moment. They probably found it by now." He put his hand on his chin pensively.

She let her head hang a little. "What are we going to do now?" She asked quietly.

Being honest? He didn't have a clue. Somehow, they needed to convince their parents that things weren't what they would seem. Where they? He didn't know actually. He couldn't deny he liked this girl. But how could anyone decide that before they had a chance to find out about that fact? It wasn't fair…. Being famous wasn't fair. But then again, that's just life. Unfair.

The least he could do now was try and get this girl in front of him to calm down.

"In any case" He got her attention again. "My father will make sure nothing else spreads from those magazines until he had all of the information at hand, so we don't need to be afraid of that. For now let's just focus on what we have to do today. And see what happens tomorrow."

She slowly nodded as she let the words sink in. He tried to catch her gaze again so he could smile at her to make her feel a little better. When she finally did look at him though. She frowned.

She then regarded him and let her eyes roam up and down his body. He felt a little weirded out by it but before he could ask, she already answered him.

"Your outfit…" She started. He felt a little relieved. She wasn't being rude, she was simply regarding him as a fashion designer. Feeling a little curious about what she would think, he pressed her. "What about it?"

"Where did you get it?" She really looked surprised about it. He couldn't blame her. He was especially proud of getting it. He had never seen anything like it before, so when he saw it in a fashion show when he was skipping the tv, he knew he needed it. He'd never really liked to wear suits, but he thought this one looked comfortable. And he was right. He rarely used his Todoroki status for anything, but he didn't mind that he did it for this one, for he knew it would take a few months before these suits would be out for wear.

"Like it?" He asked with a proud smile "I saw it on a fashion show once, they looked comfortable so I ordered the whole set."

"Are they?" She asked, genuinely interested.

"Yeah, they are. And still fun too." He finished as he looked down at the black triangles on his grey suit. They were subtle and you had to look close enough to see them. But it gave the whole thing a playful vibe, yet chic enough to wear to formal occasions. He had never seen anything like it before.

"It suits you." Her lips turned into an amused smile.  
Wait? Why was she amused?  
"Better than I thought it would." She mumbled that last part. So he wasn't sure if he heard that right.  
Before he could ask about it however. She startled him again by standing up abruptly.

"How long do we have?!" She asked urgently.  
He quickly checked his watch. "A small half hour." He answered her honestly.

"I need to adjust my presentation." She said more to herself then to him.  
"Do you mind if I go up ahead." She looked at him again.

He didn't see the problem. After all, he was the one that urged her to think about something else. Why not the meeting so he shook his head giving her an assuring smile." No it's fine, I need to go through these anyway." He gestured the clipboard to emphasise his meaning.

She slowly nodded as she picked up the briefcase and vest as she turned to the elevator again. She had to pass by him so he watched her. Until she stopped next to him, her back slightly turned, but enough to see her bite her under lip.

"Todo-…Shouto?" She corrected herself as she turned towards him. He saw doubt in her eyes.  
He was happy she didn't use his last name, but he felt a little uncomfortable about the way she said his name. "Yes?"

"Are we friends?" She cocked her head sideways a little unsure.  
The question startled him. Where they? He didn't know. So he'd just answer her honestly and a little shyly. "I'd like to think we are." He put his hand on the back of his neck a little unsure. "Why?"

"Then as a friend, I'd like to ask you something." She bit her lip again.

He felt himself get a little disappointed. He heard that sentence a lot and every time it hurt to hear. Everyone who had asked that wanted to use his status and their friendship for personal gain. He'd liked to think that she had been different. But apparently he had been wrong.

So when she bowed towards him, he wasn't surprised.

"Please judge me fairly and purely on my abilities during the meeting!" She uttered in the bow.

Shouto stifled a gasp and nearly fell of his chair in shock. He most certainly didn't expect that. She wanted to opposite? But why? Noone had asked the opposite of him. So why her? He watched her as she slowly rose again from the bow and saw the determination in her eyes.

He then felt relieved and smiled at her. She obviously wanted to achieve something with her own two hands, without help from anyone and she was afraid being friends with him would be in the way of that. He could do nothing else but admire her for this. So the answer was obvious to him as he stood up. "Offcourse."

He held out his hand towards her. "I look forward to your presentation, miss Yaoyorozu."

She flinched at the use of her last name but smiled and adjusted quickly. She took his hand in reply and shook it firmly. "Thank you Mr. Todoroki, I won't disappoint you."

He nodded in reply and smiled at her as she smiled back.

They stood like that for a few seconds until he noticed a blush creep up her cheek as she regarded their joined hands. She was obviously waiting for him to retract his hand as he had been the one in upper rank. But here he was, enjoying the feel of her fingers against his palm. Idiot. He quickly retreated his hand, feeling a blush come up himself.

She chuckled a little and bowed her head towards him as she hugged her suitcase towards her chest. She then turned towards the exit rather quickly. He watched her leave as a strange feeling started nagging him in his chest. He sat down again and regarded the clipboard next to him. He took it and opened it. Her face was smiling up at him in the picture. He read the top of the page.

Yaoyorozu Momo, Fashion designer.

He wanted to read more, but his promised to her stopped him. He promised her to judge her on her abilities right? So why not do so and not read about her presentation beforehand? Nodding to himself about the idea he flipped the page to look at the next person to be presenting himself and started to read.

He felt stupid though. Because for once, for some reason. He actually wished he could be biased about giving her a spot in the store. But he was not allowed. Maybe that was the reason? Not because He wanted a reason to continue working with her? Sighing to himself, he focussed on the task at hand. Preparing for the meeting.

* * *

As soon as Momo pressed the enter button, she leaned back in her seat with a sigh. Finally finished.

She checked the watch on her laptop. Only 7 more minutes to go. Good thing she already went to the theatre to finish her edited presentation.  
She closed the screen and looked around her.  
Slowly but surely the room started to fill, all with people who were dressed to impress. Some looked nervous and fiddled in their seats, others simply sat laid back in their chairs skimming their papers leisurely.

Momo quickly counted the heads she could see. And tried to remember the amount of papers that had been on the clipboard. She counted around 30. 30 people wanted to make a name for themselves, and after a bit of research she quickly found out 5 spots where open. That's not a lot.  
Taking into account that the meeting was supposed to be 3 hours that left 6 minutes to each of them.

You could take longer off course, should you need it. But She figured she best shouldn't. No one liked to listen to someone drone on about the same thing for a long period of time. Her specialty was to make a first impression that lasted. And she should. She did…

She let her mind wander to the one place she shouldn't. The encounter this morning.  
Momo felt a blush come up and bit her lip to try and subdue it. This was not the time to be thinking about it. Even though she did.

She couldn't help bit sigh at the whole thing.  
Her mind kept going to all of the times they touched. She counted each of them. A total of 6 times they had touched each other. And every time she had felt her heart skip a beat.

The first time was in the elevator. When he tried to lift her up. The second time was when she was stumbling backwards. Third was when she took his hand to run out. Fourth was when he took HER hand to stop her. The fifth was him kneeling in front of her and taking her hands in his, oh boy, when she remembered that one she couldn't keep her blush at bay. And last but not least. The lingering handshake.

She knew she shouldn't be thinking about these things, or making a big deal out of it. But for some stupid reason she had hope.  
Hope that he might actually be as interested in her as she had been in him.  
She quietly shook her head with a smile. She was being silly.

When she first found out his identity she was so shocked she wasn't thinking straight. Panic had taken over because she had been afraid of the name, not of the man.

But now that she thought about it, the way he carried himself with dignity and honour. A real gentleman to boot. She felt like an idiot for being so shocked about him being a Todoroki in the first place.  
Why would she think Todoroki Shouto would be a brat? Why did she need to impress him again? Was it really so bad that her Shouto was THE Todoroki Shouto?

Startled by her way of thinking she held her forehead in her hand with a sigh. Don't be an idiot Momo. You're just friends. Nothing else. There's no other reason behind it.

She heard the door open again and noticed everyone stood up. She quickly did the same as she noticed none other than the man himself come in. Most of the people bowed in recognition of their ranks, others just stared with open mouth at his presence.

Momo regarded him as he entered. His eyes had been closed and he stood in front of the stage. She felt something different about him. The way he carried himself and his stoic face made a shiver go over her spine. It wasn't necessary a bad shiver. It just surprised her how different he looked just now.

As he opened his eyes and looked around the room, everyone quieted down immediately. Their eyes locked briefly and Momo felt herself stiffen as she looked into his stone cold heterochromatic eyes. They were so different than the ones she knew. It made her feel a little lost and confused.  
Perhaps counting on the fact that she knew him and change her presentation hadn't been the best of ideas after all. A lot was riding on the fact that Shouto would react to her last slide.

But the way his eyes softened ever so slightly (she almost didn't see it) when they locked made her nod in recognition. No, she shouldn't falter right now. He continued his scan around the room before nodding his appreciation. He then stepped towards a seat, placed in the middle of the theatre. He opened his briefcase to take out a notebook, opened it, clicked his pen and scribbled something on it.

"You may begin." His low voice vibrated through the room. It reminded her a little about how his father spoke in the elevator. Silently thinking it probably wasn't the best idea to tell him this as she looked around the room.

Noone seemed to be surprised by his lone sentence. Wait that was it? No big speech? Was she really the only one surprised about this?

Someone stood up next to her and made her way towards the front of the room nervously. Her hair was green and a big mess. It reminded her a little about a forest with vines. It was hypnotising to watch as it swished sideways until she made it towards the front of the stage.

On it was a standing desk with a microphone on it.  
As soon as she stood on the stage, her face popped up behind her on a big screen. When she plugged in the usb on what she assumed was a laptop on the desk, another screen popped up next to her face one and it showed a computer desktop.

She opened a lone file on it and a PowerPoint sprang open.  
Her eyes roamed the room silently and landed on Shouto. Mr. Todoroki, she corrected her way of thinking. They nodded towards each other and she started talking.

Momo tried to pay attention to the girl. But as soon as 5 minutes had passed and she showed no signs of stopping, she felt her mind falter. She took a mental note to herself to make sure her presentation was short… Waay shorter then this girl.  
At a certain moment she had even clasped her hands together and Momo swore a spotlight had been turned on solely on her. But when she blinked it had been gone.

She repressed a sigh as she looked at the number next to her.  
When she entered she had to retract a number from a box. This had to be the order they had to present themselves. Hers had number 5. She felt relieved. She didn't need to be the first one, but no one wanted to be the last one either. Not at the rate this would be going on.

When suddenly the room started clapping and the girl bowed. Momo cursed herself. She had let her mind wander. Very unprofessional. She did notice however Todoroki was not clapping, he was simply jotting down notes on his notebook and didn't say a word. He nodded towards the girl and she understood it as a sign to go back to her seat.

The second one had been a lot shorter. It was a girl with bright orange hair in a side ponytail and a bright smile. Momo had a feeling this girl was a lot of fun to hang out with and her presentation was pleasant and short. She immediately got the gist of it and felt herself get excited. This girl was obviously a challenge to her. Perhaps if they both got a store they could be friends?  
No Momo, don't get ahead of yourself. You don't have it yet. You could still fail at this miserably.

Again, Todoroki-kun barely nodded.  
She felt herself get a little annoyed. Was he really so stoic all the time? She quietly made a promise to herself to at least get a different reaction out of him and felt herself get all fired up.

Slowly but surely the third person had been coming to an end. Again, barely a nod.  
The fourth person however, he didn't even nod too. She held in a chuckle as she had been sure he would be simply looking annoyed at this man. He was so full of himself and his case and the way he flipped his slick blonde hair that had been glowing in the light. His self centered smile surely would make Todoroki-kun's blood boil as much as it did hers.

When he left the stage with another flick of his hair Momo finally realised it had been her turn.

She breathed in and out once and stood up with her papers close to her chest.  
She took the usb stick with her and made her way to the front.

As soon as she stood there however. She felt herself get nervous. The spotlight was scorchingly hot above her as she plugged in the USB and roamed her eyes over the room.

Her gaze fell on Shouto and he was looking at her with an amused raised eyebrow, his elbows where on the desk he was sitting on and his mouth was leaning against his folded hands. Again, her heart skipped a beat. Why… why did he have to look so hot right now?  
NO. Momo, you need to focus. She purposely tore her eyes away from him, even though she felt like she could look at him all day and stacked her papers with a clear of her throat.

"Good Morning everyone, my name is Yaoyorozu Momo and I'm a fashion designer." She started.  
"Most of you probably know my family brand name as expensive, and face it. Some of the items are a little overpriced." She shrugged. She got graced with a few chuckles, exactly like she hoped. All right, she had the room.  
"That's why I thought I'd try something different this time."  
She clicked the remote once and the slide with her name on changed. On it was a ballroom and it was filled with nobility and expensive clothed men.

"Everyone has probably been to one of these before. Overly dressed, expensive parties." She didn't wait this time to get a reaction and continued with the next slide. "It is here where I got the inspiration."  
"I've noticed male suits where not easy to come by at a reasonable price. And if you did find one. It was probably not your size, or very old fashioned."

She looked up at her slide and gestured at the outfits her brand had made before.  
She then clicked the next slide. "Off course for us women, the same is true. Getting a suit that fits you without having to pay an arm and a leg is a deal on its own."

On the slide where all old female suits that she had previously owned, most of them looked like they had patterns on them that were made in the 70s.

"That's why I had the idea of creating a clothing like for men and women, that's affordable and fun to wear." She clicked another slide.  
A few female suits where present in playful colours, but elegant none the less.

"My idea is to open up a shop. That will not only let you buy and fit an outfit. But to also be able to adjust it to your body at a reasonable price."

A slight murmur filled the room. Was this good or bad? She didn't really care. She got this far. And now for the finale. She clicked another slide. And on it where a few of the suits she had already designed.

"The idea is to have yourself an all occasional suit, that's comfortable and fun to wear. But it still makes you look fabulous."  
"In the shop you will be able to adjust your outfit and perhaps even construct one of your own with the help of a little program that is currently under development." Another slide with suits on it. Most parts of it that looked like they could be put together with simple click.  
She pressed the button again and it contained the latest designs and one in particular she had enlarged.  
She then turned to Shouto.  
"I even got a review of the product and I was very pleased with the outcome."

But her heart sank.  
Shouto was not looking at the screen, or her. He was taking notes in his notebook.  
She withheld a sigh. It had been worth a shot. She smiled at herself when she noticed the approving nods coming from the rest of the room. At least they liked the idea.

Just as she had taken her papers together and opened her mouth to thank to room for their attention, she heard a small gasp.  
It startled her because she had not expected it, but turned to him anyway.  
Shouto was openly staring at the screen with his mouth in a slight "o" shape.

She withheld herself into screaming "yes" as she got a different reaction out of him than a nod, but felt her eyes go wide when he suddenly stood up, effectively silencing the room.

He took off his vest slowly and held it in front of him.  
He took the collar in his hand and checked the label with his other.  
Momo felt the corner her mouth go up a little as she tried to keep herself from smiling openly. This had been WAY better than she had planned. She had been satisfied with his review and his gasp. But this? Golden.

He let out a small chuckle and turned to her with a sly smirk. He still didn't speak, but Momo knew he didn't need to. Everyone in the room had now known Todoroki Shouto was now wearing a Yaoyorozu Original, without himself knowing it.

She nodded towards him with a small smile and turned towards the room again. "Thank you for your time everyone."

She stacked her papers and took out the USB stick. She bowed slightly when she stepped out of the desk and noticed Shouto's eyes had been following her as she went to her seat. She turned her head towards him as she ascended the stairs and winked at him when their eyes locked.

His eyes widened and she was startled about herself.  
She quickly turned forwards again and quickened her pace towards her seat.  
Momo, you're an idiot… why did you have to wink?

* * *

After a presentation like that, Shouto had trouble paying attention to the rest of them.  
He forced his mind to the people in front of him, but other than a few mentionable characters, none of them stood out the way she did.

He was relieved when the meeting finally ended and stood up to stretch his legs. He left the room first as this was custom but he was dying to find Yaomomo after this. He had so much questions. His most urgent one was the wink. But would he dare to ask her?

It's a good thing the whole thing got filmed, so he could watch it again to make a proper selection. His mind had been unprofessionally occupied by a certain Raven haired girl.

He had finally understood why she was so interested in his outfit for today, or why she suddenly needed to change her presentation.  
This girl was way too clever and witted for her own good. And she would probably make it high in the business world.

As he made his way to the elevator however he got stopped by his father as he beckoned Shouto towards him.

Shouto rose his eyebrow. His father never talked to him after one of these meetings, he wondered what could be wrong now?

He entered the room his father had been standing nearby to and noticed it had a few screens in it. One of them showed the room the meeting had been in and her felt his heart sink.  
He had an inkling feeling his father had been watching these meetings, he just didn't have any proof. Until now. So off course he saw this performance. This coupled with the elevator incident and noticing the woman in the back of the room with a smile on her face, he knew what this is about.

"Shouto my boy, you've been had. Haven't you?" His father didn't even sound disappointed. He had never heard his father so amused before and it scared him.

Shouto slowly nodded. "I didn't know It was her brand I was wearing, honestly." He shrugged.

Endeavour nodded back to him. "So this wasn't planned?"

Shouto shook his head.

Just as Endeavour opened his mouth again to say something the door burst open rather loudly.

"Mother, is everything all right? Your text said it was an emerg-.." The girl was still holding the door handle as she was panting the words. Obviously she had been running. She silenced herself as she took in the view in front of her.

A few seconds ticked by as her eyes went wide and she backed out of the room with a bow. "I'm so sorry! I must have the wrong room!"

Her mother's chuckle in the back stopped her from leaving as she rose her head again with obvious confusion clearly written on her face. "Mother?"

Mrs. Yaoyorozu stood up gracefully and walked towards her daughter. She put her hand on her shoulder with a big smile. "You are in the right room my dear. And it is an emergency."

Yaomomo cocked her head questioningly and then turned to Shouto for answers. Shouto simply shrugged, clearly not knowing what was going on as well.

"Mr. Todoroki has something he'd like to ask you." She pressed her hand on the girl's shoulder a little harder and turned her around towards the big red haired man.

Shouto noticed the girl swallow visibly and withheld a chuckle. He knew first-hand how intimidating his father could be. But as soon as he saw his father smile, a shiver ran over his back. His father smiling, was never a good thing.

"Yes girl. Your presentation had piqued my interest, and I'm sure Shouto would like to hear more about it, should you be willing to talk about it over dinner."

Shouto felt himself get cold and hot at the same time. Hot, because dinner with Yaomomo seemed like the perfect way for her to answer all his questions and perhaps another excuse to see her again. Cold, because with their parents present, this could go wrong in so many ways. Not exactly his idea of a perfect first date. Wait, why was he thinking about dates? This was purely business, right? Something in his father's eyes told him it wasn't. And he felt his heart sink.

Yaomomo on the other hand could do nothing but nod slowly. He swore she jumped up a few cm when his father clapped his hands together. "Excellent."

He then turned to the girl's mother. "You and your husband are welcome to join us, naturally."

The woman obviously faked a hand on her chest. "My, we would be honoured."

Yeah right. This had been a set up from the start. They just needed a reason for this "date" to happen. And idiotically as it is. Shouto and Yaomomo just gave them one. He cursed himself. He let this happen.

"How does tomorrow evening sound?" His father spoke loud again, effectively startling Yaomomo again. Shouto wasn't fazed by it. He had heard his father's voice enough to not be startled by it anymore. Mostly he took pleasure in the act that someone got startled by it. But now he only felt worse.

"Perfect." The woman put both hands on her daughters shoulders and led her out of the room. Probably before the girl found her voice again to protest about the whole thing. He watched them leave and he followed his father out of the room. The woman turned to them again as his father spoke. "I'll email you the details of the location."

The woman nodded and let go of Yaomomo. "Thank you very much for the invitation." She bowed. Yaomomo did the same, clearly not out of her daze yet. He felt a little sorry for her as he watched them turn around again and walk through the now empty corridor.

"Honestly dear, if you had told me 3 months ago that your inspiration for this series had been this Todoroki boy, I would have supported you more openly." He heard the woman say, obviously loud enough so they could hear.

This seemed to effectively slap Yaomomo out of her daze and he saw her turn her head towards her. "Mother! I told you it's not like that!"  
He saw a blush grace her cheeks.

"Yes, yes, Momo. You know having a Muse is nothing to be ashamed of." The woman waved her finger towards Yaomomo.  
Yaomomo her eyes went wide and turned towards Shouto, clearly checking if he had heard. He knew he had been staring at her with his eyebrows high into his hairline. He noticed how her blush turned into a lovely shade of red that even covered her ears. She quickly turned her head away again looking down and quickening her pace.

Shouto could simply stare as he watched them turn a corner, the voice of the woman going more silent with each step.  
He let the words sink in. He had been a muse? He inspired her? He was the reason she had made these outfits?  
He heard her mumbling words echo in his head. "It suits you… better than I thought."  
He felt himself get hot inside. He had never felt this way before. So needed. So happy. So… fuzzy and warm. He knew he must have been blushing badly right now. And he couldn't do anything to stop it.  
And the worse part? He knew his father was watching him.

Note:If you are wondering. I based the suits on a brand called opposuits. Should you be interested. They are cheap and very comfy! Look them up sometime!


	4. What friends are Four

**What friends are Four**

The title says it all. Keeping your friends updated!

 _I caved. I split the chapter up…_  
 _It really was getting too long… But other than making up new titles with numbers, nothing should be different._  
 _So here you go! 10000 words (and a new record for me) for you to enjoy!_

Momo never panicked.  
She was calm, collected and composed.

Except now.

Her house was a mess, riddled with clothes. She was a mess, because she didn't sleep. Everything was a mess. Because god darn Kyouka Jirou had not replied to ANY of her calls, texts and skype notifications for a total of 28 gosh darn hours!

She was worried. Worried about her friend, she lived for her cell phone, she never left it unattended or uncharged.  
She was cranky, because she needed to vend about everything that had happened in the last 24 hours and had no one to confine and she didn't sleep. Which made her stressed as well.

Hungry perhaps (make that hangry, a lovely mix of everything) because she hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, when she was still in a lovely bliss of her what seemed like a perfectly normal life.  
And she was panicking. Yes… she was panicking.

She only had a few more hours left before the infamous dinner date that she didn't even remember agreeing to.

It had all been a blur from the moment she entered that room and she saw the CEO and his son stare at her for her (probably) rude behaviour of not knocking before entering.

Everything after that was a blank.

She vaguely remembered nodding a few times. Trying to catch Shouto's eyes for any type of comfort and her mother grabbing her shoulders and turning her around a few times and out the door.

The next thing she remembered was that her mother oh so graciously spilled the beans to everyone in that hallway that Shouto was the one that gave her the inspiration for the current line of Yaoyorozu suits.  
What made matters worse, was that he heard it. If the surprise on his face was any indication.

He probably thought she was a crazy stalker or something. First collecting data on him by grabbing the first magazine she came across that had any data on him. Next because she committed a full and complete clothing line in his image.

Ugh, she just couldn't catch a break.

She rested the back of her head against her door to her bedroom and slit down into a sitting position.

She checked her phone once more to see if her friend had at least shown a sign of being alive.  
Figuring it would be best to leave another message she opened the chat and started typing.

Normally, she would have typed something like 'Kyouka, I've tried contacting you a few times but you've yet to call back. I hope you're just busy but I'm getting a little worried. Please let me know if you are alright?"  
But she was at her limit.

 _Creati:  
_ _JI! If you don't sign in in 5 minutes, I'm calling the police and child support to report you MIA!_

She pressed the enter button and sighed as she let her head hang back against the wall.  
A small ding had her grabbing for her phone so fast, she had almost dropped it.

 _Uravity:  
_ _Hey Yaomomo, didn't she go hiking with Denki and his family? She probably doesn't have internet up there._

Momo blankly stared at the screen and blinked twice before the words reached her mind fully.

She then started laughing out loud.  
Gosh she was an idiot. Yes, that's right.  
She had been nagging about the fact that Denki really wanted to go hiking with her (which was odd, because the guy loved electronics and everything that ran on electricity, or so Ji said.) and he knew the place wouldn't have any type of power. All nature.

She finally said yes after she knew (bless her soul) that Momo had been safe from the party and would be all right without her (her words) wonderful advice and support.  
Oh she's in for a surprise when she gets back.

Feeling the relief wash over her, Momo suddenly felt tired.  
Perhaps she would finally be able to take a small nap now, or at least eat something. Until she looked at the chat again.

Something was off.  
Ochako wasn't in this conversation and she definitely couldn't be on the internet. Her parents forbade it when she was abroad to study.

She scrolled up the conversation and face palmed. She had opened the group chat from high school they had made. The last message had been from 2 months ago, when Jirou and Denki finally started dating officially and Ochako had to leave for Europe to take her flying tests. Jiro and Momo had a separate chat room, because they didn't want to bother her.  
Momo noticed the 3 dots on the bottom of the screen, indicating Ochako was still typing.

 _Uravity:  
_ _Guess who is back in Japan by the way!_

Momo smiled and started typing as well.

 _Creati:  
_ _Oh my god! You're back! How did it go?_

 _Uravity:  
_ _Pretty good. Finished the first tests. Have a good feeling about them. Getting back to work next month. Now I have a little break!_

 _Creati:  
_ _I'm so happy for you, I knew you could do it!_

 _Uravity:  
_ _Thanks! How are you doing? I'm sensing I've missed a few things?_

 _Creati:  
_ _That's… an understatement… A lot has happened._

 _Uravity:  
_ _Wanna hang? It's been ages since I've seen you._

Momo looked at the chat.  
It's not that she didn't want to hang with Ochako, it's just that the girl was always so busy. She didn't want her problems to become hers, because she would definitely make them her own as well.  
She loved the girl. But perhaps telling her would not be the best idea at the moment. The girl finally had a holiday. Because if she was not in the air working as an air hostess, she was somewhere abroad, studying to be a pilot.

The girl loved to be in the air. Even though it used to make her nauseous. It didn't stop her from following her dreams. And she overcame everything by sheer will alone. Momo couldn't be more proud.

But Momo was also nearing her limits.  
While she felt less panicked because she finally felt relieved her friend was safe (and feeling stupid for forgetting.) She was still stressed and in desperate need of vending.

Sighing to herself, she knew the girl would find out everything eventually. Might as well tell her personally.

 _Creati:  
_ _Wanna come over? I'm in desperate need of a girl talk._

 _Uravity:  
_ _PERFECT! Me too. See you in 20!_

Momo Chuckled.

Yes, this was what she needed.  
Now, time to take a power nap.  
Too tired to actually move, she grabbed some clothes that where near her and hugged them close into a make-shift pillow.

Should her mother see what she was doing with these overly expensive clothes, she would probably have a heart attack.  
But she couldn't even be bothered to care at the moment as she finally drifted off into a light slumber.

* * *

Shouto pressed the doorbell and took a step back from the door politely.

He took in the big house he was standing in front of.  
It wasn't as big as his of course, but you couldn't exactly call it small either.  
He preferred this one over his either way. It why they often met here or at Midoriya's.

He hated inviting people over. With the maids running all over the place to make sure their every whim was catered, they hardly had a private moment.

They had made an unspoken oath to have Tuesdays off and organise a get together once in a while. If there was no hitch off course. Shouto could have an unscheduled meeting (even though his father knew Tuesday was his free day.) Or Izuki or Tenya could be called in case of emergency. Being a firefighter and police officer was a risky occupation after all.

The door opened to reveal a bright pink haired woman. She had her hair into a messy bun and her yellow eyes shined with joy.

"Well if it isn't Todoroki Shouto! They are expecting you! Come on in! You know the way!" She gestured inside and stepped back to make room for him to pass.

Shouto held in a chuckle and continued his train of thought. 'Or someone could blow up the house not that unexpectedly.'

He nodded towards her and stepped inside. "Good afternoon Hatsume-san, thank you for having me."

She beamed at him. "As usual, don't you ever grow tired of saying that?" But she didn't seem all that offended as she closed the front door and went the other way with a wave of her hand. "And I told you to call me Mei."

He rose an eyebrow as he routinely took of his coat and put in on the hanger in the hallway. He then turned to what he knew was the way to the kitchen and knocked on the open door. "Hey guys."

"Good afternoon Shouto-kun! Glad you could make it." Tenya was in the middle of making what Shouto thought was coffee so he looked up once with a nod and then continued. Perfect, just what he needed.

Izuki smiled at him from his seat, looking tired. Shouto quickly guessed he probably worked the night shift and joined him on the table. "Rough night?"

Izuki nodded with a sigh. "You can say that again."

"Everything all right?" He asked a little concerned. It wasn't like Izuki to openly express a bad night, unless something really bad had happened.

"Nothing that amazing." The boy continued. "A fire in a jewellery store, after they raided it. Tenya handled that one, caught the perps quickly."

"They hid in the building across. Figured they couldn't have gotten far." The police officer shrugged as he pressed the coffee machine and it started whirring softly. "They wanted to see how big the fire would spread. It was a bunch of kids really."

Shouto nodded. It wasn't that weird that they saw each other in their line of work nor that Tenya caught them quickly, he was known for being one of the fastest runners on the precinct. But he still felt a little jealous each time. He knew they were professional about it. But he still wished he could see his friends more often. Alas, such is adult life.

"But that was in the evening Izuki-kun" The man continued as he reached for a kitchen door that presumably contained snacks. "That couldn't have made you this tired."

The boy shook his head and sighed. "No, Kacchan decided to have a LAN-party at my place tonight. So when I came home my house was a mess. Spend all morning cleaning it." He let his head fall onto the table.

Shouto patted the poor green-haired man's back in what was hopefully a consoling gesture.

"You shouldn't have given him your spare key" he added.

"I know. But he said he needed a place to crash for a while, I didn't think he'd be using it a full housing." He mumbled against the table.

"Maybe you should let him pay rent?" Tenya added, as he put a bag of chocolate biscuits on the table.

"Or he just needs to get laid." Mei had gracefully entered the room to grab a biscuit as soon as the package had been opened. Tenya had always sworn she had a device that notified her as soon as something sweet opened so she could come an eat it. Shouto started to think he was right.

The fact that she randomly appeared didn't surprise anyone, what she said however effectively silenced the room.

The boys stared at her with wide eyes. Izuki was blushing a little, Shouto was simply flabbergasted and Tenya face palmed.

Mei only popped the biscuit in her mouth and turned to their surprised faces.

"What?" she shrugged. "The guy is simply frustrated. Nothing a good bang can't beat."

Tenya groaned and his eyebrow twitched a little in his face palm.

Then Mei turned to Tenya to hug him from behind. "Why do you think I'm so happy all the time. I have no complains." She gave him a small kiss on his cheek with a grin.

Tenya turned to her his head bright red. "Mei! That's too much information! They don't need to know that!" He was waving his hands around in robot like movements again. It had been a while since he did that. Shouto simply thought he grew out of it, but apparently it still returns when he gets flustered.

Izuki suddenly sat upright. "You might have a point." He looked lost in thought as he put his hand on his chin. " _I mean he has been behaving weird lately, might be because he really is frustrated about not being able to get his attention, I mean. They have been staring at each other a lot. Half the time when they are fighting I expect them to kiss or something near the end, I wouldn't be that weird, everyone expects it, they are just too stubborn to-..."_

Shouto had turned to the green haired boy again. Smiling a little at the fact that now both of his friends suddenly fell down into old habit. Tenya and his robot arms and Izuki and his muttering. It might sound a little mean, but it felt good to talk about someone else's life for a change.

Something in it caught his attention though and he interrupted the green haired man.

"Wait, Bakugo-kun likes someone else? I thought you guys where a thing by now?" Shouto didn't care about his friends being bisexual. They were who they were, and he didn't love them any less for it. But he really thought Izuki liked his explosive friend.

It made the boy turn bright red and he waved his arms around as well, though less robotic then the blue haired boy. "No! He's my childhood friend! I mean… I did have a crush on him at some time. But that blew over quickly!"

"I knew it" Tenya slammed his hand on the table. Startling everyone, including Mei, who had just reached out to grab another biscuit when she sat down next to Tenya and Shouto on the round table.

"Sorry." The man fell back in his seat. "I just had a hunch that you confirmed." He rubbed his hand at the nape of his neck. He then stood up the grab the coffee pot, who had stopped running and poured them all a cup

"So, who's the (un)lucky lad." Mei took the cup that was supposed to be for Tenya, leaving the man to sigh and grab another one out of the cupboard.

Izuki's grinned at this. "Kirishima Eijiro" He reached for the milk and poured some in his cup, he then offered to Shouto and rose his eyebrow.

Shouto nodded and held out his cup to him while he poured some milk. "Thank you." But before he took a sip he frowned. "Wait, isn't he your boss?"

Izuki chuckled at this. "Yes, though he did go to the same classes as us. He ranked up much quicker because he actually listened to his peers." Then he blushed a little and added silently: "Not like Kacchan and me."

He then smiled again, it was a tender smile. One that you make when you are happy for someone else. "Kacchan and Kirishima-kun already fell for each other in college. But our education kept us too busy for a love live."

Shouto, Tenya and Mei nodded, urging him to continue, so he did. "But now that they are older, Kacchan is just too stubborn to ask him out, and Kirishima knows that if he asks first, Kacchan is going to be too embarrassed to say yes. So he's just waiting for him to figure it out."

The firefighter suddenly looked much older as he sighed. Shouto finally took a sip of his cup with an "I see".

Mei cleared her throat, probably trying to lighten the mood again she turned to Shouto with a smile.  
"So, how's your girlfriend doing? I've seen her, she looks totally hot."

Shouto almost snorted his coffee back through his nose and swallowed it so quickly it left him coughing.

"Imsorrywhat?" He choked out.

"Your girlfriend? The black haired one?" Mei grinned at his expense.

Shouto stood up quickly startling everyone. "Mei!" breathed. "Did you read the article?!" He knew he sounded panicked but he needed to see it.

The girl nodded with a grin.

"Do you have it? Where did you read it? Can I see it? I need to see it." He probably sounded desperate right now, but he didn't care. He needed to see the article. He noticed Mei's grin turn into a frown. That wasn't good.

Tenya's voice made Shouto calm down a little. "Shouto, what is she talking about?"

He turned towards his friends. "There's an article out about the party I went to last weekend. Where I met the girl again."

Izuki leaned forward. "You know who she is?!" He sounded excited.

"Well, yes, but not because of the article." Shouto sat down again. He was getting a headache.

"Wait, she's your girlfriend but you don't know who she is?" Even Mei seemed confused right now.

"She's not my girlfriend." Shouto turned to her sadly. "The article made it up. That's why I need to see it, I want to know what else they say."

Mei put a hand on his shoulder. "I read it at a friend's place, I only read the title so I can't say much, but I'll see if I can get my hands on it for you." She looked at him, immediately getting what gossip magazines can do with celebrities like him. She felt a little bad about believing it so quickly herself. But just a little. Shouto looked at her gratefully.

Tenya cleared his throat and they all turned to him. "Shouto-kun, I think it's time you explain, so we can all follow what is going on."

Shouto nodded in a sigh and folded his hands on the table. "I didn't get a chance to tell you this yet, but I figured out her nickname at the party…-"

* * *

"And then she left the room with puffed up cheeks!" Momo chuckled.

Ochako rolled over the bed laughing. "Omg! This is better than a soap opera! What happened then?!"

Momo blushed a little and looked away longingly. "We waltzed until we both got dizzy."

"Wait! You didn't stop? Even after she left?" Ochako was almost squealing.

Momo shook her head. "You kidding me? Do you have any idea how good he smelled? God, I could've stayed in his arms forever." She was blushing a little more fiercely now as she grabbed another piece of the pizza that was on the floor in a pizza box.

They had made themselves comfortable in her bedroom. Momo was sitting on the floor and Ochako had taken residence on the bed. They had ordered a pizza so Momo finally got something to eat, because the moment she relaxed a little, she was starving. Ochako told her she should save some room for tonight's dinner, so she graciously offered to help finish it up. The girl also took another slice of the almost finished pizza. "I'm pre-tty sure it wasn't just his perfume." She wiggled her eyes and emphasised on the 'e'.

Momo pushed her side playfully with a laugh.

"I feel like such a teenager again." She sighed in relieve.

Ochako smiled at her. "You deserve this Momo, You worked hard your whole life. You finally found someone."

Momo smiled at her sadly. "Like you're one to talk."  
The girl simply smiled at her sadly too and shrugged as she finished her slice and rolled on her back.

"You know my job and studies are hard to get me someone to love. I'm married to my job. Unless I find someone who can live with that or is also like me. I'm not even going to try." She sighed and turned back to the girl. "Now, about this dilemma. What's happening tonight had you so shaken up?"

Momo bit her lip. Just as she opened her mouth to explain, her laptop started blasting at full sound.

It startled both girls but as soon as Momo recognised the sound as a Skype song, she stood up, almost tripping over some clothes to reach the darn thing and press 'answer'.

Another (rather angry) voice blasted out of her speakers. "YAOMOMO! WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHY IS YOUR CELL PHONE DEAD!"

Momo gasped as Jirou's face appeared on screen, looking totally flustered and red in the face.

She then reached for her phone only to notice the screen was indeed black. "Oh, the battery must've died because I tried to call you so much." She face palmed.

Jirou did the same. "YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE! First you scare me HALF TO DEATH by leaving 20 MILLION MESSAGES. Which do not even explain what is going on, I might add! AND THEN you don't even bother to charge up your phone so when I do get back SO I CAN ACTUALLY REACH YOU?!"

Momo simply shrugged in a smile.

"I swear, when I get back, I will… I will… I will." She was making a hand sign that looked unsurprisingly a lot like chocking someone. "MESS UP YOUR ROOM!" She then yelled.

"Good luck with that Kyouka-chan. I doubt you can do any worse than this." Ochako jumped off the bed nimbly to join them and gestured around herself.

"Oh hai Ochako! When did you get ba-.. YOU REPLACED ME?!" Jirou had started to talk to the brown haired girl only to turn back to Momo looking outraged.

Both girls started laughing at their friends antics.

"No one is replacing you Ji-" The brown haired girl giggled. "Momo simply panicked. Check the chat."

Jirou opened her mouth but closed it again without saying anything, she then took her mouse and clicked a few things.  
Momo and Ochako look at each other with a smile and then shrugged.

Jirou cleared her throat and turned back to the camera. "First of all, welcome back girl!"

Ochako smiled and waved at her. "Thank you! It's been a while! How was hiking?"

"It was… better than expected! It was actually a setup, his parents disappeared into a different hotel in the middle of the night!" Momo didn't know if the girl looked happy or outraged.

"Wait, so you two where alone together?!" She leaned in closer to the screen. Ochako joined her, hanging onto her every word.

Jirou blushed. "Yes… He brought me to the top of the mountain in the middle of the night. Once we reached the top, there was a huge metal cage waiting for us, and inside was a blanked and a picnic basket."

Momo pulled a face. "Wait, he caged you? And he lured you with midnight snacks?"

Jirou chuckled. "Yeah, I was sceptical at first too. But with the promise of a surprise, we both went inside and he closed it."

"Sooooo?! What was the surprise?" Ochako beamed at the screen.

Jirou grinned. "Lightning!"

Both girls frowned at each other and then turned back to the screen. "Lightning?" they said in union.

"Yes! A storm came up not much after we went inside. He knew this, obviously, turns out the cage was a faraday cage!"

Momo gasped "Isn't that dangerous?"  
Ochako nodded at her question.

"Not if you don't know what you are doing. And Denki set it all up… for me…" She blushed a little.  
Both girls remained quiet. Waiting for her to continue.

"It was beautiful" The purple head sighed.  
"Lightning hit the cage at almost regular intervals and I couldn't stop watching. I think for once in my life, I didn't actually miss my phone. The way it hit in different tones, it was almost like a song."

Momo whistled in a grin. "That's quite a feat."

"I know!" The girl sighed again, she seemed happy.

"You're leaving something out, girl." The brown head grinned at the camera.

Momo had also noticed the story ended rather abruptly for Jirou's standards.  
The girl in question could only blush. "He kind of asked me to live together after the storm calmed down."

Momo and Ochako jumped up in a squeal. "OMG! What did you say?"

"I said yes." The girl pressed her eyes closed right after the confession, to drown out the squeals coming from the other side of the screen.

"When?!" Both girls said in union.

"We don't know yet. But I did say I would like for it to be in Japan. I like it here. But my home is still with you guys. Denki agreed, saying he expected it." She smiled tenderly.

Momo felt her heart warm up. "You're going to make me cry." She lifted her finger to the corner of her eye suggestively. The girl almost did cry, but she blamed it on the emotion streak she was currently on. Seriously, there was a limit to how much a person can handle in one day.

"Aww, you guys are adorable!" Ochako hugged her black haired friend and Momo hugged her back.

Jirou cleared her throat, also seemingly having a hard time keeping her emotions in check.  
"ANYWAY." She tried to sound stern again. "Finding my phone riddled with messages and missed calls wasn't exactly fun to come back to!"

Momo cringed back into the hug, hiding her head behind Ochako's arm.

"What in heavens name could have happened in 30 hours?!" She was almost yelling again.

Momo sighed and let go of Ochako. "That's what I would like to know too." The brown haired girl said as she let go of her friend and put her hands on her sides.

"I know his name." Momo quietly answered.

"WHAT?" Jirou really yelled this time. "How is that possible? There wasn't a party, was there? Did you find a magazine? Was he in it? I thought you had a business meeting?! How did that go by the way?" She lowered her tone a little with that last question.

"The meeting was the reason." She bit her lip. This confused the other girls a little as they cocked their heads.

"His name is Shouto… Todoroki Shouto."

The "whaaaaa-aat?!" scream could be heard, even if you would have been standing outside of Momo Yaoyorozu apartment.

* * *

"And then she licked my hand." Shouto blushed a little. Quickly regretting that he added that little detail. His friends where knacks at extorting their prey for as much information as possible. But Mei was on an entirely other level.

"Ewww." Tenya pulled a face. Izuki and Mei only gasped and then laughed.

"Why would she do that?" The blue head asked.

"Because I didn't notice I was chocking her, I was a little busy trying to focus on the sounds outside." The half-half boy admitted.

"That explains, she probably thought it was the only way to grab your attention without making a sound." Izuki put his fingers to his chin in thought.

"She disinfected it though. Even though I don't know where she even got the bottle because her dress was…" Shouto stopped himself with a blush and then cleared his throat when he noticed everyone grinning at him. "She then gave me her napkin." He took it out of his back pocket and showed it to them. "It's when I got her nickname, she knew mine because she heard Toga-san yell it."

"Y-M" Mei read out loud, as she picked up the little piece of fabric. "Hey this is some quality stuff!" She rubbed it gently.

Tenya also reached out to touch it. "Do you know what the initials stand for?"

Shouto nodded. "I do now, but I will get to that later, for now she let me call her Yaomomo."

"That's a pretty name." Midoriya grinned at him. Shouto simply smiled and nodded.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Tenya gave the napkin to Izuki, who took it with wide eyes and nodded at Mei, signalling she was correct. Mei smiled proudly. "You are now both on a first name basis already?!"

Shouto shrugged with a small blush. "Yeah, I guess."

"This is way better than watching 'Days of our lives'" Mei was grinning from ear to ear as she reached in to grab another biscuit.

"So you're now alone in the room, what happened next?" Izuki returned the napkin to Shouto, who was now rubbing it absent mindedly.

"We talked." He continued. "She told me that her weird dress choices where because she was rebelling against her mother for also making her go on arranged marriage dates."

"Aww, so not to seduce you?" Mei sang.

Shouto turned a little red. "What? NO! She would never-!"

"Relax, I'm joking." She put a hand on his arm. "You're so easy to tease." She chuckled.

Tenya rose and eyebrow at her. "Mei, leave the poor man to his story, I have a feeling things are about to get even more interesting."

Shouto could see why this man turned out to be a police officer. His intuition was still top notch.  
"She also told me why she hated these parties, and that she was grateful for getting her out of there. Because she had a business meeting with someone soon, but she didn't know what he looked like, so she was scared to insult him and that he would probably be a- how did she say it?" He interrupted himself looking up in fake thinking. "a rich stuffed snobby ass anyway." He chuckled at the thought.

The others rose an eyebrow and looked at each other, but they said nothing to let him continue.

"I told her of my problem with Toga-san." He continued. "And she offered a solution…" He fell silent.

"What solution?" Izuki urged him.

"The ending of one problem and the beginning of a bigger one." He sighed and looked at the handkerchief in his hands.

"She proposed we dance to make Toga jealous." He smiled sadly at the thought. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now he could only think back on it bitterly, thank you dumb magazine.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait-" Mei stood up. "The picture?!"

Shouto nodded.

"What picture?" Tenya frowned, Izuki simply looked confused.

"The magazine picture I saw! It showed them hugging closely, now that I think about it, the background was a dance floor! You were dancing?!" She hit her fist in her other hand, tying the two ends together.

Shouto nodded again and closed his eyes with a sigh.

Mei sat down again disappointed "That's such a let-down! You looked really close too. But you were only doing it to make Toga-san jealous."

"But you still danced." Izuki nudged his elbow with his own and grinned.

Shouto felt a blush come up. "Yeah, we did. She was really good at it."

"Shouto, I have to ask, you were close that time, right?" Tenya looked at him seriously.

"Yes, it was a waltz, you kind of have to hug a little." Shouto answered him confused.

"Did the perfume help?" Tenya asked him, his face serious.

Shouto couldn't fight this next blush even if he tried, remembering the intimate moment. (Which replayed a lot in his head, mostly before falling asleep.) His fuzzy feeling slowly returned. He knew he had turned bright red by now but nodded none the less. "She said I smelled good."

Mei squealed and Izuki made a fist in the air yelling "Yes!"  
Tenya simply smiled and leaned back in his chair. "I am relieved."

Shouto chuckled a little at their reactions. He knew they had been worried about the whole perfume fiasco, especially when they knew Toga-san had entered the fray, but he felt happy they understood his dilemma's as well as they were their own. He drained his coffee cup and then sighed.

"Do we now get to the part where we find out her name?" Izuki broke the peaceful silence as he refilled Shouto's coffee cup.

Shouto nodded with a smile. "Her name is Yaoyorozu Momo."

All 3 of them gasped.

"Even I heard of that name, Isn't that a designer brand?" Mei put a hand in front of her mouth.

"Yeah, she's a designer." He said with a little hint of pride before he continued. "You guys know that I had youngsters meeting this yesterday, right?" It was the name he gave to the meeting he had yesterday, where new shops tried to make a name for themselves.

The others nodded.

"Well, she was one of the candidates, and I'm the rich stuffed snobby ass." He grinned.

This time he got 3 different reactions. Mei cackled so hard she almost fell from her chair. Tenya simply looked very surprised and Izuki groaned and face palmed, probably feeling the shame for the girl in her stead.

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait, wait-" Jirou pinched the bridge of her nose and held out her hand in a stopping motion in front of her.

"You're telling me, you actually ran into him AGAIN?" She removed her hand from her face and slam her desk, which made the video shake a little.

"Literally? Yes… I even messed up his papers. They were flying all around us." Momo twiddled her thumbs.  
Ochako sat crossed legged on the bed, hanging on to her every word. "This happens often, doesn't it?"

"It's a thing for them by now." Jirou crossed her arms with a grin right after she fanned her hand towards the camera.

"ANYWAY!" Momo interrupted them. "When he helped me up and apologised, I helped him pick up his papers, it's when I found one with my data on it. That's when it clicked." She sighed. "I feel stupid for not seeing it before."

"How did he react? Did he already knew?" the brunette seemed genuinely interested.

"He told me he had just found out right before we smacked into each other, then he casually told me I was his 10 o'clock." She chuckled at the thought. Though it didn't seem funny at the time, she could actually laugh at it now.

When both girls didn't say anything she took it as a sign to continue.  
"My realisation made me step back, and I almost tripped over my suitcase. He helped me again, just like on the picture." She watched the other nod.  
"Such a gentleman, isn't he?" Ochako sighed happily.

"Oh he, is." Jirou rose an amused eyebrow.

Momo Simply cleared her throat. "And as you all know my luck, that's when my mom and Mr. Todoroki entered the elevator."

"Hold on." Jirou rose her hand to interrupt her again. "What was your mom doing there?"

Momo opened her mouth, but closed it again and looked thoughtful. "You know, with all the commotion, I never got to ask. I will do that tonight."

"Okay, you do that. Now, your parents came in while he was helping you up, continue!" The brunette almost hopped up and down on the bed.

It made Momo chuckle before turning serious again. "Nothing really happened there, except for the fact that I got the impression Shouto and his father didn't get along… But it might be my imagination."

She then continued without waiting for a reply: "We escaped the elevator after a polite greeting. Mostly because I could _feel_ my mother boring questions to me. So I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the cafeteria. It's there that I realised my mistake."

"What mistake?" Jiro asked and Ochako nodded.

"I had dropped the magazine…" She sighed.

Both girls gasped. "Oh no!" The brunette put her hands in front of her mouth.

"And the title… it's…" Jirou piecing the pieces together.

"About us." Momo gave them a sad smile. "They think I'm Todoroki Shouto's girlfriend. And his father probably found the magazine, because I can't find it anywhere anymore…"

"Oh Momo." Ochako put a hand on her shoulder supportingly.

* * *

"Guys, am I a pervert?" Shouto put both his hands through his hair and rested them in it while leaning with his elbows on the table. He looked downright miserable.  
Izuki didn't know where the question came from. If one guy WASN'T a pervert, it would be Todoroki Shouto.

"What do you mean?" Tenya cut off the boys musing and asked the question before he could.

"What I mean is… I've been thinking about her. But it feels…wrong." He cryptically explained. Not that Deku understood any of it, he needed more information.

"We're going to need more than that bro." The firefighter chuckled a little.

"I've seen her in some… interesting outfits, to say the least. I mean, it's obvious that she doesn't shy away from showing skin." He swallowed and thought a little before continuing.

"But when I met her yesterday, all proper and business like… I actually checked her out. And I can't say I didn't like it. But I hated myself at the same time." He admitted. Deku watched as the man blushed a little.  
Izuki had never seen the man blush much before. But it seems like today, he was making up for all of the years lost.

It took everything he had to not burst out laughing at the realisation that dawned on the green haired boy. One of his best friends finally had a crush… and he didn't know what to do with it. Now… how do you explain that this is natural?  
Thankfully, Mei was there to help.

"Shouto, do you think she's pretty?" She asked with a sly smile.

The half-half boy looked up quite flustered. "Off course she's pretty!" he barely held himself from yelling that last statement. "But she's so much more than that…" he continued a little quieter.

"She's incredibly kind, smart as hell, shy too, considering how quickly she blushes." He almost chuckled himself at that last part too. Izuki felt his heart warm. Okay, probably more than just a crush.

"Punctual, she was at least an hour early. Strong, I remember her elbow punch." He pulled a pained face. This made the others look at each other with a grin.

He continued his compliments as if he was counting the alphabet. "Talented, funny-".

"Well endowed" Mei casually cut him off with a big smile.

"Well endow-" Shouto repeated after her, until he realised what he was about to say and turned bright red. He stood up in shock and turned to the girl. "MEI!"

She rose her hands in defence. "Well, she is!"

The conversation finally sank in. "Wait, she is? You never told us that?"

Shouto turned to him, still a little red in the face but he sat down again much calmer. "It was irrelevant to the situation."

Irrelevant my ass, Izuki felt his smile turn into a grin. "Yeah, right. At least now we know you're a boob guy."

"I'm not a- what?" Shouto frowned at him, clearly not getting what he was saying, bless this innocent closed off child.

"A boob guy. When you're looking for a girl, you subconsciously choose a feature you like."

Shouto's eyes went wide and opened his mouth to say something. Probably object, so Midoriya cut him off. "I'm a butt guy I guess… being Bi and all." He awkwardly put his hand on the nape of his neck.

"I guess I might be a little bit of both." Tenya joined in, rubbing his chin pensively. Shouto's head whipped towards the blue haired boy so fast, Izuki was afraid he'd get a whiplash. But his expression was the most interesting. Utter shock and embarrassment.

Mei however, seemed to have great fun in the conversation as she shot Tenya a wink and blew him a kiss, did his eyes deceive him or was she actually blushing? Interesting.

A soft thud made him look sideways again as he noticed Shouto had ungracefully plopped his head on the table face first. "How can you guys be so casual about this?"

All 3 of them laughed and Shouto rose his head again.  
"Mei might be rubbing off on us." He shrugged.  
Deku noticed a small smile forming on Shouto's lips.

"All right… I guess I am a boob guy." Midoriya watched as his neck was still a shade of pink with a snigger.

"But, as I was saying, she's far more than just good looks!" He cleared his throat.

"Okay, okay, we get it." Mei's held up her hands again and then crossed them on the table. "Shouto, its okay to think a girl is pretty." She softened her smile.

"It is?" He seemed confused. "I just don't want to objectify her, you know?" he turned to the table lost in thought.

This let out a chuckle from Mei. "Why do you think we dress up?" She continued. When no one replied she just simply stated the obvious. "We want to be noticed you know. As long as you remain polite about it and don't start harassing us, we're totally fine with a polite compliment or two, telling a girl she has a nice dress, or that her hair is nicely done, can only earn you some points." She winked at him. "Just don't whistle, or openly stare at certain body parts." She waved her finger sternly.

Izuki was impressed. He didn't know much about women, but he was learning a lot. If only he could take some notes.

"But where do you draw the line between polite and rude?" He asked her, he seemed distressed. "I don't want to turn out like that purple haired creep."

Mei thought for a bit as she put her finger on her chin and tapped three times. "Well, for example, I think it's logical for a man to be a bit more "bold" with the girl he likes. Every guy is a little perverted with the girl he likes. The same can be said for the girl. That's how physical attraction works. She will tolerate and even want you to notice her more if it's mutual."

Shouto rose an eyebrow. Clearly still confused. "Could you elaborate?"

Mei sighed. "Oh boy. All right." She continued. "For example, why would I wear a cleavage?"

Izuki felt a little unconformable, not really liking where this conversation was going, and shifted in his seat, he noticed Shouto did the same thing.

"For Tenya?" Shouto tried.

"Bingo." She snapped her fingers. "I want Tenya to notice me. I don't always dress up, but I want to look good when we go out, so I can feel well when Tenya gets a little jealous when other men stare. I like it when he gets protective."

The policeman cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Plus I like to tease him." She smiled at the blue haired man, whom had already opened his mouth to protest.

"This off course could be different for any woman." The woman ignored her fiancé and simply continued. "But the main goal is always to be noticed by someone who could be a potential mate."

"Oh I get it." Izuki slapped one of his fist into his other hand. "Like Shouto putting on the perfume, because he wanted to smell good so he could grab her attention."

The poor boy turned bright red again. "Tha- That was only for academic investigation!" His voice rose an octave unintentionally and cleared his throat.

Izuki chuckled at his poor excuse. He wondered if the man actually believed that himself.

"Shouto. I think you should figure out if she likes you as soon as possible." Tenya finally decided it was safe enough to join the conversation.

"That's good idea, dear." Mei joined him. "Tell you what. If next time you two meet, and she's wearing something eye catching again, she's probably looking for your attention."

"I don't think it's that simple Mei." Izuki sighed at her idea.

"How so?" She frowned.

"She's a fashion designer." Izuki offered and then turned to Shouto. "She's kind of obligated to wear nice things, right?"

Shouto nodded and seemed lost in thought as he stared in front of him.

Mei's face fell. "Ugh, why can't you fall for the easy types?" she waved her hands in the air in frustration as she stood up to grab the pot of coffee. She refilled his cup before he had a chance to realise what she said.

When he rose his head to object however, Izuki quickly cut him off. "Man, I'd like to meet this girl. To actually getting Mr. Straight face here, think he's a pervert. She must be something." He nudged his friends elbow. The man could only blush as he hid himself behind his coffee cup to take a sip.

"Oh she's a total babe." Mei sat down again when she refilled all of the cups and grabbed the last biscuit. Wait, did she eat the whole pack? Izuki didn't even remember having even one.

Tenya gave her a stern look as he watched her devour the last biscuit. "Anyway. She complimented you on your outfit and then asked if you were friends. What happened then?" The man was dying to hear the rest.

Shouto nodded, surprised he actually wanted to hear the full story. "Uh, right." He cleared his throat. "She asked if that as a friend, if I would grade her as if she was a stranger." He smiled at the memory.

Izuki let out a whistle. "She must be confident then?"

"Not at all, I think she actually wanted to see if she could make it in, without any help, sort of like a test for herself." He frowned. "But that's just a guess."

Izuki smiled at the man, he knew this meant a lot to him, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Did she?" Mei was the one who seemed interested.

"Let's just say her presentation left an impression on me…. And my dad." He sighed wistfully.

The others stared at each other and Izuki broke the silence. "Your dad?"

* * *

"OMG! He was wearing the suit? One of YOUR SUITS?" Jirou gasped as she leaned into the camera, almost like she wanted to crawl through it. Momo nodded and chuckled at her.

"But he didn't know?" Ochako offered, she was also smiling.

"No! That's the best part. He was actually bragging about never having seen something like it before. It made me so happy, I almost jumped up and hugged him." She admitted with a blush.

Jirou cackled loudly at that. "Off course you would! You did make them with him in mind. AND HE WAS WEARING THEM!" she practically jumped and then fanned her face. "This is too much." She fanned a hand near her face.

"So… did you tell him?" Ochako had once again changed pose and was now dangling her feet off the bed excitedly.

"Not immediately…" Momo knew she must be grinning right now, but she didn't care. "I saved that for the meeting…"

Both girls gasped. "You didn't!" Jirou practically yelled, again.

"I did." Momo smiled excitedly. "I even changed my PowerPoint, so his outfit was the last one on the slide."

All 3 of the girls started giggling at this. "How did he react?" Ochako bounced.

"He almost didn't." Momo turned serious again. "He was so different at the meeting… so… stoic… I almost didn't go through with it because I didn't recognise him." She sighed at the memory.

"I heard about that." Ochako interrupted her. "He's supposed to be the most serious guy you'll ever meet. No emotions whatsoever." She waved her finger sternly. She then smiled. "Or at least that's what the magazines claim." She shrugged.

Momo nodded, she kind of understood that now, that was also what she had read about him in ANY magazine or article about the Todoroki's. That's why she didn't believe it was him at first.

"But then he stood up with and 'Oh', took of his coat and checked the label inside. In front of the whole aula!" She squealed. "It was the best thing ever. I totally got a reaction out of him, it was so satisfying!" She felt overjoyed once more at the feeling she had, remembering how she had to keep herself straight and not yell 'Yes' out loud.

Both girls smiled at her happiness.

"So did you get the shop placement?" Ochako was the one who asked this time.

"I don't know yet." Momo bit her lip. "I think that's what I'll find out tonight."

"What's tonight?" Jiro rose an eyebrow.

"The reason I needed to talk to you guys." Momo was playing with her fingernails.

* * *

"Hold on there." Izuki interrupted him by holding out his hand. "You where her muse?!"

Shouto instantly turned a little red. "I don't know, but her mother claims I am."

"It would make sense. Why else would she say that you looked better in the outfit than expected?" Tenya rubbed his chin pensively.

"How do you feel about this, Shouto?" Izuki cocked his head.

Shouto looked down at his cup and played with the ear. "I don't know. I feel flattered I think. The outfits are really well made, and the design is amazing."

"But I don't know if it's really true, she never confirmed it." He sighed.

"Well, if it is true. We could have a problem." Mei interrupted the men.

"How so?" Izuki urged her to continue.

She bit her bottom lip. "I can't say for sure. But if she's an artist, this could mean two things."

Neither men answered her, they simply waited for her to continue. Thought Shouto felt his stomach drop a little. He expected more of a reaction out of them from this revelation.

Mei held up a finger. "The first thing, could be in our favour."  
Shouto frowned with a smile. Our favour? When did this become a quest for all of them? Probably since the beginning. He withheld a chuckle and focussed on the pink haired girl.

"She could really like you, and her feelings for you inspire her to create things." She smiled at him. Shouto felt the fuzzy feeling return.

"And the second?" Tenya was the one who asked this. Mei held out two fingers at him. "The second is, that as an artist, your aesthetic or behaviour triggered her artistic sense and made her want to create. But that means this is only a temporary thing." She looked at the boy sadly.

Shouto felt his stomach drop. This shouldn't really surprise him. She never really gave him any signs of interest other than being friends. But the more he thought about it, the more confused he got. Wasn't that what he also wanted to be? Just friends? I mean. He liked her. And she's the first girl that actually made him look at a woman in a different way. She also didn't literally throw herself at him, much like the other girls at the parties because of his status.

He also wasn't oblivious to the fact that society labelled him as a pretty boy, even though he had a scar quite obviously, but she didn't really seem upset by this, or interested for that matter.

Noticing that everyone was staring at him and smiled at them. "That's all right you guys. I'm just happy if she's willing to my friend after all this."

Izuki nodded. "What are you going to do about the dinner date though?"

The two toned boy sighed out loud. "I'm not sure. I guess I'll just let it happen, though I'm pretty sure my father is planning something…"

"Speaking of which." Tenya checked his watch. "It's almost 5, shouldn't you be getting ready?"

Shouto stood up surprised. "It's 5 already?" he checked his own watch. "I got to run." He drained his coffee cup while standing and then walked towards the door. The others followed him with their eyes.

"Thanks for the coffee." He turned to them once more. "And for listening." He smiled a little. But it turned out to be a sad one. "It helped."

"No problem man." Midoriya waved at him. "Good luck!"

Tenya smiled. "And don't forget to actually enjoy it at least a little."

Mei simply winked. "And only undress her with your eyes."

Shouto turned bright red at the comment and blinked once to try and grasp what she mean. Tenya gave his fiancé a slight nudge in her side with a stern face. "Ignore that Shouto. Now go before you are late."

"Oh and try and get her number, It would make everything a whole lot easier to meet." Midoriya cut in quickly.

The half-half man nodded and turned around, his face still frozen in a frown as he rounded the corner. They heard him grab his coat and when the front door closed again Izuki sighed out loud.

"He's screwed, isn't he?"

"Royally." Tenya took a sip from his coffee.

Mei simply chuckled as she stood up. "If you'll excuse me. I have to go visit my hairdresser."

"Again? You just went this morning?" Tenya rose an eyebrow.

"I did. But this time, I'm going to check her magazines." She winked as she also turned towards the hallway and disappeared in it.

"Your fiancé sometimes scares me Tenya-kun." Izuki shivered.

Tenya could only sigh and nod.

"What about this blue one?" Ochako picked up and item from under Momo's bed and then held it up.

"It's a last year's model." Momo looked at it pensively before shaking her head. "At least this time I can wear something decent. My new line is officially out. So the lingerie line is a no go."

Jirou looked lost in thought. "Momo, is this a date of sorts?"

Both girls stopped their search and turned towards Momo's laptop.

"I'm not sure… I think it's more like a business dinner than anything else. I mean our parents are there. Why?" She placed herself in front of the screen again so Jirou could see her. Ochako joined them.

"Because." Jirou suddenly grinned. "There are no rules about business dinners, right?"

Momo frowned. "Not that I know of?"

Ochako suddenly jumped up, this startled the black haired girl. "I get what you mean! She's not limited to a Yaoyorozu original because it's not officially about an arranged marriage!"

The purple head pointed two fingers into her direction with a grin. "Bingo!"

Momo bit her under lip with her upper teeth. "I don't know… It's crossing a very thin line…I know she's planning something."

"Then what better way to disrupt that plan, by wearing something you didn't make?" Jirou seemed way too excited about this. "Ochako, grab the Chinese dress!"

Ochako nodded with wide eyes and then grinned as she turned around and practically ran into the walk in closet. She sidestepped a few times so she wouldn't trip on any of the items on the floor.

"Wait, not THE Chinese dress!" Momo felt her eyes widen. "That's way too tight!"

"Oh lighten up! You look amazing in it and you know it!" The purple head fanned her hand towards the screen once.

Momo couldn't argue with her there. Plus she really loved the dress. The reason she bought it in the first place. But she never dared to wear it. It wasn't revealing or anything, it was just…. Very curvy.

Ochako returned swiftly with a black dress and thrust it in her arms. "Try it!" She was seriously way too excited about all of this. Momo sighed and took the outfit. She disappeared into the bathroom.

Jiro gave the brunette a double thumbs up and the girl returned the gesture with a smile.

"You think she'll be okay tonight?" Ochako leaned a little closer to the screen as she sat down in front of it.

"I hope so." Jirou sighed. "I'm kind of betting on the Todoroki kid to help her out a little." She frowned as it felt weird to say his name. Ochako chuckled. "You really trust this guy?"

A smile appeared on the purple haired girls face. "Way more then I probably should." She frowned. "But he has done nothing if not being exemplary. I just wish I was there right now."

Ochako nodded understandingly and they fell into a comfortable silence.

"Wow. I know you looked good in it but this is a whole other level." Jirou suddenly spoke as she rose her eyebrows into her hairline. Ochako turned around swiftly and whistled. "If he's not drooling after this, he's definitely gay."

Suddenly Momo laughed out loud. "You guys are exaggerating." She grinned as she placed herself in front of the mirror. Though she had to admit… she did feel rather good in this dress. "But isn't it a bit… much?"

"Nonsense." Ochako stood up and grabbed the red rose pin she stole from the bathroom earlier, that and a comb. Momo never noticed when she had done that. Ochako placed herself in top of a chair and started combing her hair.

"Do you think he thinks I'm weird?" Momo suddenly asked.

"Wha woo you mean?" Ochako tried to say, but she was currently balancing a comb into her mouth and holding up her hair at the same time. So it came out a bit warped.

Momo withheld a chuckle. "I mean, now that he knows I made the outfits with him in mind. He probably things I'm creepy now." She sighed.

"Nonsense!" Kyouka sternly stated, there was no room for doubt. "I'd be honoured if you made an entire clothing line in my honour." She put her hand on her chest and closed her eyes with a grin.

"Same, really." The brown haired girl was brushing Momo's hair again, so she could talk once more.

Momo smiled at them. "Thanks you guys." She was blushing a little as she pressed her two point fingers together. "I did actually design two outfits in your image."

Kyouka snapped her fingers. "I knew it! The black one and pink one in high school, right?"

Momo saw her eyes go wide in the mirror and looked at the computer screen reflection of her friend. "You knew?"

The girl simply shrugged with a smile. "It was a little obvious. It was perfect, and also, the black and pink stretch suit you made fit Ochako here perfectly."

"That was for me?! You totally made me model that! You're so sneaky!" The brunette laughed.

Momo simply smiled at them. She was happy with friends like these and wouldn't trade them for the world. They really did know her better than anyone.

"Now for the touch up." Ochako twirled Momo's hair into an intricate up do and place the single red rose in the middle of her raven black hair. Slit a few pins into it to hold everything in place and then turned her by the shoulders towards the screen so Jirou could look.

She nodded approvingly. "Though something is still not right." She tapped her chin pensively as Ochako grabbed a pair of red pumps laying around to place them in front of her.

"I get what you mean." She also turned towards the black haired beauty. Momo rolled her eyes as she put on the pumps.

"Oh!" The brunette exclaimed as she suddenly ran towards the bathroom, she dragged Momo with her. The girl simply let her. She had learned a long time ago that she couldn't possibly fight these two when they were playing dress up. And she couldn't say she didn't enjoy the time they spend together. They made her feel alive and refreshed again so she followed with a small smile.

Jirou patiently waited, knowing the girl was in good hands. Ochako could do wonders with someone's hair, it's like she could defy gravity as soon as she touched it. It also helped off course that she knew what she was doing and what she was using.

Jirou started checking her charging cell phone, because she knew it could take a while and popped in her earplugs to listen to some music. After about 30 minutes she heard shuffling again. She looked up towards the screen and a satisfied smile appeared.

"Perfect."

It might take me a little longer to upload the next chapter... sorry in advance. Evening school has started again and the teacher went mad with tasks...Hope you understand! (I have a job as well)


	5. Table for Five

**So very sorry you guys.  
I actually had some hardware problems which resulted in me having to buy a new laptop.  
Thank god I had a backup of my stories.  
I also rewrote a part of it.  
I tried a general point of view, but it sucked.  
I hope you like this version and SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT!**

 **Please enjoy!**

 _When you're not the one planning, obviously things will not go according to plan._

 _A.K.A._

 _Parents will be parents._

 **Table for five**

They had arrived at a fancy restaurant smack in the centre of the shopping mall. Shouto knew this place was really expensive and he also knew his father didn't just take anyone to this place. It didn't bode well.

He straightened his white tux and pulled the collar of his grey shirt a little bit loose. He probably shouldn't have worn a tie in this outfit, but he loved this thing, especially because it accented his white side perfectly. Something he knew would annoy his father. Thought if it did. He wouldn't show it. The man had a permanent scowl on his face.

After a polite young woman had showed them to their table, he noticed it was neatly styled in a way that indicate this was no ordinary dinner. He silently counted the amounts of cutlery and withheld a sigh. This was going to be a long night.

He sat down on one side and his father joined him on his side. The table was an oval one and could easily fit 6 people. But the setting indicated only 5 people would attend.

He checked his watch. They were at least 15 minutes early. A perfect timing for any polite setting.

Suddenly the woman appeared again and whispered something into his father ear. His father immediately rose and Shouto did the same. He now knew their guests had arrived. And boy did he knew. As he looked at the entrance he suddenly forgot where he was.  
She took off her coat with a smile towards the person who took it and turned to her mother to say something, thus giving Shouto a full view of what she was wearing.

A tight black Chinese dress contoured her completely. And it was... Tight… It had a red lining on the sides and front. Her red pumps matched that same lining and it was also viewable on her short sleeves. The dress curved her perfectly in every direction and it made him remember his musings of yesterday afternoon. Remember when he said seeing less was more alluring? She knew a perfect way of nailing that. It's like she knew what he was thinking. The way her split showed a healthy amount of leg but still not enough to be offending made him gulp out loud. When she moved, he could see a black shiny flower pattern on the black dress that made everything even more mysterious.  
But her hairstyle is the thing he noticed the most. Probably because it was the first time he saw her with something other than her trademark ponytail. Her usual lose bang was now a delicate curl that contoured her face and the elegant up do was finished off with a beautiful red rose. She wasn't wearing a lot of make-up. But her natural beauty shone none the less through the thin line that contoured her onyx eyes. He felt himself get hot as he took her in and suddenly remember Mei's words…"Every guy gets a little perverted with the girl he likes." Yeah… He was doomed with this one.

"Shouto, you're gawking."

The heavy voice vibrated through his being and effectively slapped him out of his musings. He then turned to his father with a frown.

"I wasn't-" He tried to say, but his father interrupted him.

"Whatever you were doing, it wasn't polite." The man grumbled.

Shouto's frown only got bigger. Great. He probably was gawking, but being caught by your father of all people, we're off to a great start.

"I never thought you were the one to fall for a pretty face." The man continued, Shouto thought the conversation was over, so he rose an eyebrow towards the red haired man.

"Though I can understand where you are coming from."  
Was his father seriously going to analyse his tastes? NOW?

"She's well educated, from a nice family, rich and talented. A very good match."

Great. His father approved. So why did it feel all wrong? Because he didn't even know himself if he wanted her to be a potential wife? Because his father was actually PRASING someone? Or because he didn't even want his father's approval. He fought the urge to speak against him and repressed a shiver. Why did he suddenly feel like the idea of even getting close to her as an obstacle? Because his father approved? He fought off his usual urge to go against his father once more and distance himself. It wasn't fair to Yaomomo. He did get bad omen about the coming evening all of a sudden.

"Smart too, she even outsmarted you yesterday."

There it is… leave it to his father to be able to compliment someone, only to insult someone else. And that person was-…

"Don't let it happen again."

Ding, ding, ding! Shouto himself off course.  
Was it strange that he suddenly felt at ease again? His father was back to normal, Yaomomo got a compliment and he got an insult. The way things should be.  
He didn't reply to his father, instead he looked at their guests again. Only to notice they had started to come to their table. Damn, he missed to greet them.

His eyes met Momo's and suddenly his stomach jumped when she smiled at him. His father was instantly forgotten and he stepped around the table to greet her.  
Okay. Remember Mei's words… compliments are good. Greet and then Compliment her. You can do this.

How do you greet someone again?

* * *

Momo didn't believe it… her mother actually approved of her outfit? Something was up. It was not a Yaoyorozu. And it was a business meeting… perhaps it was because she actually looked the part for once? Maybe she had let the girls go too far in this. She never intended to actually look like she tried too hard (even though she didn't do any of the work, all of the credit went to Ochako) enough to impress anyone.

She felt a little stupid all of a sudden, but the damage was done, now not to let Ochako's hard work (and Kyouka's guidance) go to waste and nail this thing. What was she nailing again? Right… a shop at the mall. She was here for the mall.

She breathed in and out once and followed her parents inside the obviously too expensive restaurant. Seriously. Why where 'rich' people always so obviously… rich…?  
As soon as she entered, someone welcomed them and asked them for their coat. She politely handed it over with a smile and heard her mother say something to her.

"Don't screw this up, Momo. I'm counting on you."

Theh, this made her feel like boycotting the whole thing even more. What was she screwing up again though? What was even the purpose of this whole meeting?

A shop at the mall.

It was starting to sound like a mantra in her head.

"Dear, she's going to do great. He already bought her whole male collection." Her father came to her rescue and gave her a small grin.

Her mother only replied by pulling up her nose and straightening up with her eyes closed. Ugh, her mother was such a snob.

I'm here to nail a shop at the mall. She repeated once more, as she simply withheld a sigh and chose not to reply to her mother and look around instead.

"Please follow me to your seats." Someone appeared and gestured in front of them. The person then turned around and started to walk.

Momo followed a little reluctantly behind her parents.

I'm here to nail…

She stopped walking and gulped silently

Shouto?  
No, not nail Shouto! Stupid brain…

Her eyes fell on two people, standing upright behind a table and where talking to each other, both their hands behind their backs. She felt her eyes go bigger as soon as she laid eyes on the smaller man. Dressed in a bright white tux that accented his white side perfectly. This same white side was combed back stylishly with a little gel and his left side was hanging loose. Giving him a red side bang.

His grey shirt and black tie completed the look and gave him a little 'bad boy vibe'. It was positively criminal how hot he looked in this tightly fitted outfit and she knew she would have trouble keeping her eyes off him for the rest of the evening. Yeah… she was here for the mall… shop… thingy… She wondered how long she could lie to herself about that. There was no more denying, this man was totally her type.

"Momo, are you coming?" He mother lifted an eyebrow as she turned behind her. Her father looked at her a little concerned.

"I-… yeah." She shook her head and started walking again.

She profoundly refused to acknowledge her mother's grin that graced her features before she turned back towards their hosts.

"How wonderful, you could make it." A heavy voice originated from the taller red haired man as he spread his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.

"But off course, thank you go having us!" Her mother curtsied politely.

"And thank you for joining in as well, Mr. Yaoyorozu."

Momo vaguely noticed her father and Mr. Todoroki shake hands as all of the noise seemed to evaporate as soon as she locked eyes with Shouto. Her heart jumped as his heterochromatic eyes bore into hers with an intriguing look and she couldn't help but smile shyly under his stare.

He suddenly started to move towards her and held out his hand.

Her body reacted automatically as she let her hand fall into his in a polite greeting.

"Glad you could make it." His lips brushed her knuckles and she felt herself heat up.  
This was the second time he did this and she just couldn't get use to his old fashioned way of greeting.

"I-…" Great Momo, get a grip.

She retracted her hand and curtsied politely. "I'm delighted to be here." She smiled as she lifted her head again.

His look startled her, he was looking shocked.

"Are you all right?" She asked him, genuinely concerned as she put her hands together in front of her.

He shook his head and his lip twitched a little upwards. "Yes, I'm… you just look… wow…"

She blinked once and then chuckled at him behind her hand. Ochako, you're the best. His look alone is worth it.

"You don't look to shabby yourself." She winked at him.

If his permanently shocked look was any indication, she now knew she would not be the only one to have trouble avoiding gazes. Wait… why was this a good thing?

".. and Shouto off course."

The mention of his name popped the two semi-adults out of their bubble and reminded them they weren't alone. Shouto was the first to recover.

"Yes, thank you for joining us. Please, have a seat." He gestured the table quickly and held out a chair towards Momo.

Momo nodded towards Mr. Todoroki in greeting and then followed Shouto to the seat. He helped her sit down like a true gentleman and she felt a little embarrassed. She always thought those old fashioned manners where so outdated. But for some reason, when he did it. It only made her feel special. She turned her head towards him to thank him but got startled by his close proximity

"Allow me to try this again."  
His whisper made her feel a little fuzzy as their faces where now really close.

"You look beautiful." He smiled at her.

She felt herself blush and looked in front of her again quickly. "Th- Thank you." Great. Now you're stuttering. Were her ears deceiving her or was that a chuckle she just heard. She couldn't really check as he made his way towards his own seat. She noticed she was sitting next to him and her mother was at her other side. Followed by her father and Mr. Todoroki. Thus completing the oval.

Odd table setting.

"I've taken the liberty of choosing a fixed menu for us tonight, but I can assure you it is one of its finest suggestions and my personal favourite." Mr. Todoroki's voice was as heavy and loud as ever and it made Momo wonder if it always was like that.

Seeing no one in the restaurant looked at him strangely she figured she'd best get used to it quickly as well.

Someone came and took their orders on what to drink.  
She ordered a fizzy water, better to keep a clear head. But her mother had none of that.  
So she ordered a house special cocktail as a starter for her. Momo sighed and quietly signalled the waitress for a water as well. The girl nodded apologetically.

Shouto rose an eyebrow towards her as he himself ordered the same as she did. Probably to make her feel better. She smiled at him gratefully.

The drinks arrived swiftly and Mr. Todoroki rose his glass in a toast and cleared his throat.

"To a fruitful meeting."

Her mother and father joyfully repeated his words. Hers where more like a mumble and she didn't even hear Shouto say anything. She caught him staring at his father with a stoic face. Seriously. She couldn't tell what he was thinking at all.

"So…" Her mother started, as the starter arrived. It was a green looking soup that smelled amazingly like broccoli. Broccoli soup? Really? They placed a basket of lukewarm bread on the table and her mother took one to place next to her soup.

She turned to Momo and Momo felt herself dread the coming conversation. "You two met before?"

There it is… the real reason they were all here. They wanted to hear about how they met.  
Momo made sure not to glace at Shouto not to raise suspicion on to anything. There was no way she was going to tell her the same story she told her friends.

"Yes, as we mentioned, we met at the birthday party." Momo carefully weighted every word as she tried to seem very busy into smearing some butter on her bread.

"Which one?" Her father rose an eyebrow.

Shouto was the one that answered him. He was following her example in feigning mild interest. "The one my father organised for me." His tone was cold. And he emphasised on the word "father."  
Momo was right, they really didn't get along at all.  
If his father heard his reference at all however, he didn't show it in the slightest.

"Isn't that the one where you wore that ridiculous outfit?" Her mother rose an eyebrow with a sly smile towards her.  
Momo knew what she was doing. Trying to talk her way out of why she would wear something like that, and not letting anyone know about the bet she made with her daughter, so she wouldn't be the one with a bad face. Momo hated these underhanded tactics and felt herself get angry, but bit her lip to keep herself from retorting something she would regret later. What Shouto said startled her though.

"I liked the outfit." Shouto rose his head towards the elder woman. "She stood out in a positive way. Plus the colour combination was… intriguing." He then turned towards Momo with a smile.

Momo felt herself get a little warm and smiled back at him gratefully. Now all she had to do was wait for her mother to fall into Shouto's well laid trap. This guy was good.

"Those colours?" Her mother started.  
Wait for it-  
"Such a horrible clash of-" she continued, but cut herself off quickly as she noticed Shouto fold his hand above the table and rose an eyebrow to her intrigued. The look was kind of similar to what he did with the presentation. If she thought he looked handsome back then? The combination with his look now and the realisation of what he was doing made her stomach jump ten times worse than when she laid eyes on him in the beginning of the evening. She had to try her hardest to not fan her face. Though her mother's face was an excellent way to distract herself, she silently wondered if this place had always been this hot.

Her mother's eyes had widened in realisation and looked as if she finally noticed Shouto for the first time.  
His father however actually looked genuinely confused, even though it was hard to notice any difference in his permanent frown. He probably had enough of being left in the dark as he spoke:  
"What was so important about the colours?"

Finally, her father caught on and desperately tried to save face for his wife. "They were a unique combination. Only one my daughter could come up with. Such an artist."

Really dad? That's the best you can do?  
Momo rose an eyebrow and her mouth formed a frown. She felt obligated to let her father know this way that his compliment was misplaced.

Shouto seemed to agree with her there as he sighed silently. Was he going to try and corner her mom again? She felt a little curious as she rose her water glass to take a sip.

"Not that unique really." He started as he turned from her father to her. "Let's just say we matched in a certain way."

Now that's an understatement. Momo hid her smile in her glass as she moved it up to take a sip.

"Didn't your friend take…?" He started. Momo quickly realised what he was going to say and everything happened fast after that.

* * *

A loud clung startled Shouto in the middle of his conversation as Momo set down her glass a little bit too fast. She missed her plate however and the action made the glass topple over. The water inside splashed all over his right arm and part of his thigh. How this happened? He didn't know, because she was sitting on his left side.

Yaomomo rose from her seat looking horrified. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-…" She quickly grabbed her napkin and leaned over him to try and dap on his now soaked sleeve.

"It's quite all right Yao-…" He paused himself, not because he was about to speak her nickname again, which would also have been a bad thing, but because she took his arm and leaned in to press her napkin to it.  
"I'm such a clutz!" Seemingly innocently forgetting her very ample side bosom that was now pressed against his face.  
He froze as he felt his eyes widen and felt eternally grateful she was not wearing cleavage today. He tried to turn his head away and held as still as he could.  
He was focussing so hard on not moving or making any wrong connection he shouldn't he almost didn't hear her whisper should it have not been near his ear. Her soft voice, gently caressing his ear made a shiver go up his spine. Focus Shouto! "I thank you for what you are doing, but please don't ask about the picture. Do you remember what we were doing in it?"  
Then she suddenly said out loud "I didn't mean for this to happen!"

Wait a second. Did she spill on him on purpose? No, it all happened to fast for that. She simply made use of the situation.  
His admiration for this woman once more for her quick thinking and wit. Still frozen in place she moved towards his thigh again. Finally he could breathe as her torso turned away. Only to figure she was nearing a more dangerous zone. He knew he must have been blushing as he realised they had been holding hands in the picture but she said nothing about it. She simply whispered once more. "I'll give it to you later, please just don't mention it again."  
Then louder again: "I'm so sorry!"

Aha, she did have the picture. Curious as to why she might have it, he decided now was not the time to pry.  
He cleared his throat as he gently grabbed hold of her hand that was patting his thigh. "It's quite all right Miss Yaoyorozu. It's just water." The whole exchange couldn't have lasted more than half a minute, but it felt much longer.

The grateful smile she gave him made his heart skip a beat. Why must she be so… captivating.

"Oh my, Momo is usually never this clumsy, I can assure you." The older Mrs. Yaoyorozu caught his attention again as she addressed his father. His father however seemed to be no attention to the woman and kept staring at him with great interest. Shouto sighed silently. Get your act together. You're never this emotional. Was this all because of Yaomomo? He decided now was not the time to think about things like this. Yaomomo was counting on him. She made this clear to him just now.  
He felt a bit proud that he had earned her trust, so now was time to prove it.

He cleared his throat and turned back to Yaomomo "As I was saying, didn't your friend tell us we matched that day?"

Yaomomo nodded. "Well yes. The colours I was wearing where red and white, and he was wearing black and grey." She explained it with a hint of pride. "It was quite a coincidence really."

Endeavour nodded towards her and then rose an eyebrow towards Shouto. Conveniently ignoring Mrs. Yaoyorozu, who was clearly happy this conversation was no longer about her.

"That's quite an impression indeed." Something in the man's voice seemed to be mocking him.  
This didn't feel right with Shouto, so without thinking, he blurted something out that he perhaps shouldn't have. But he needed to make sure to them Yaomomo DID leave a lasting impression, other than the clothes off course.

* * *

Momo felt herself get cold by the stare Mr. Todoroki was giving them. She wondered how anyone could look so cold while giving a semi compliment. Or was it in insult? It certainly felt that way. This might be the reason Shouto looked so worked up. She turned her attention to him as he started talking again.

"Well, it wasn't the only impression she made." He turned to her with an amused smile.

"It wasn't?" This was her father asking. She felt her eyes go wide.  
No… he wasn't going to-.

"She elbowed me in the stomach." Shouto simply stated, as It was the most normal thing in the world, he took his plate and held it up a little so he could spoon out the last of his soup.

Momo felt horrified and turned to the parents.  
Her mother was blinking, her father was gaping, and Endeavour rose his famous eyebrow in question.

Suddenly her mother put her spoon down next to her plate and took her napkin to dap her lips from the remaining soup that might have lingered. She closed her eyes as she put don't the napkin and then turned to Momo while folding her hands on her lap.

"Yaoyorozu Momo".  
Momo froze and turned to her mother. Full name? That's never good.

"When I told you the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I did not think you would take me quite so literally."

Momo couldn't help the groan that emanated from her mouth as she heard Shouto choke quite violently in his soup.

"Mother, that's not-" She tried to say, but her mother wasn't done yet.

"I thought you understood that when you insisted on taking cooking classes."

"I didn't take them for-" she tried again but this time Endeavour interrupted her. "She can cook?" He actually seemed mildly interested in the conversation all of a sudden.

Shouto had finally stopped coughing and tried to help. "She tried to-" He started, but he stopped himself and turned to Momo. He then repeated his father's question. "You can cook?" His eyes turned wide.

"Yes I can, but that's not-" she interjected for the third time, but her mother interrupted her again. "Why yes! She's learned from the very best chefs in France and Italy. She even knows most traditional Asian dishes. She's very good at remembering the ingredients and her dishes are delicious."

Momo gave her mother the most disgusted look she could manage. She made it sound like it was all her mothers' idea. But Momo had to drive a hard bargain to be able to learn how to cook for her own. And the reason was not because she wanted to be the "perfect" housewife either. She simply liked to be prepared until she gathered the courage to try and live on her own. She felt like they needed to know this fact… or at least Shouto would. She turned to him with a rather loud voice, catching everyone's attention.

"I didn't learn it to be a housewife, I simply wanted to live on my own as soon as possible."

She then turned back to her mother. But other than the roll of her eyes, she didn't seem all that phased by her sudden outburst. Even worse, she grinned as soon as Mr. Todoroki asked his question.

"She lives alone already?" He then turned to Shouto and actually looked satisfied. The look gave her the chills in a very negative way.

Shouto cleared his throat awkwardly, it was clear he also didn't like where this conversation was leading. "Anyway, she was simply defending herself."

Another silence arose from the table. Interrupted one again by an offended looking Mr. Todoroki.  
"From you?"

"What no?!" Momo rose from her seat. "He would never!"

She then turned to the man himself, begging with her eyes to back her up. This was getting out of hand. "He tried to help me."

"So you hit him?" Another confused question. This time for her father.

Momo groaned once more and fell back into her seat, pinching the bride of her nose.  
She was getting a headache.

"Mr. Minoru was very persistent in trying to get her to dance with him. I tried to help her, only she didn't need it. By the time I got there, she had already broken free." Shouto explained quickly. He also looked tired. He then turned to her. "With a rather astonishing speed I might add."

Momo lowered her hand from her face and looked at him gratefully. She then turned towards the rest of the table. "The moment I got free, my arm fell backwards from the force and hit Sho- Todoroki-kun" She really needed to learn how to say his name properly in appropriate situations.

"I hadn't seen him yet, nor did I knew who he was, and after the hit, I was afraid to introduce myself, so we parted ways without knowing who one was."

Shouto only nodded in affirmation.

Endeavour and her mother nodded. "Mr. Minoru again? Good think we let you take those self-defence classes then. That man needs to be put in his place."  
It was one of the rare cases that Momo agreed with her mother.

"I'll look into it." Endeavour hummed lowly. He then turned to Mr. Yaoyorozu. "It was good of you to let her take self-defence-classes. In this modern age, one must be able to defend themselves. I trained Shouto personally in kickboxing whenever I found the time."

Momo sensed a hint of pride in his voice, even though he didn't show it.  
She glanced Shouto's way only to notice his face had the same stoic expression she had seen before in the meeting. Only his thin lined lips gave away that he might seemed angrier than he appeared.

There was more to this. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that they seemed to be on bad terms? She shouldn't pry. This was none of her business after all. She did sense some sort of a kindred spirit in him though, so she felt like it was her duty to change the subject.

Luckily (for once this evening) their conversation was interrupted by 5 waiters, bringing the next meal towards their seats. She didn't even notice them cleaning the table.  
In front of her where now a few small toasts, covered in some sort of salsa with tomato's.  
Obviously an appetiser.

"Mother." She spoke loudly, as she picked up her knife and fork.  
She could have eaten the thing with her hands, but she knew that would have probably been impolite.

"Can I ask you something?" She continued and waited until she turned to her and nodded slightly.  
From the side, she saw Shouto raise an eyebrow towards her as he also picked up his fork.

"Can I ask what where you doing at the mall yesterday?" She already had an idea of what she might be doing there, but she needed to be sure anyway. Plus it was a nice change of conversation.

Her mother took a small bite of the toast with her fork and gave her a smile, that border lined on a grin. "Can you not guess my dear?"

"I have an inkling." Momo narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.

The silence made her continue. "You were there to check on how I would do in the meeting."

Another grin graced her mothers' features.

"She's so smart, isn't she?" She turned to Mr. Todoroki. He simply nodded and turned back to his toast.

"If you did not trust me, why did you let me go to the meeting?" Momo felt a little annoyed right now. She really ought to have more faith in her. She knew what she was doing after all, and even if her mother was a stuck up and rather selfish woman, in the end, she only wanted what was best for her future and would always say she trusted her.

"Au contraire my dear. You have me all wrong." Her mother actually looked genuinely shocked.

Momo cocked her head questioningly and waited for her to continue.

"Mr. Todoroki here was so kind as to extend an invitation to all of the parents of the meeting, to come and see or assess what their children where capable off. I can assure you I wasn't the only one there, but I had absolute faith in you. I was simply curious."

This did not make her feel any better, and she was sure, judging from the chill emanating from the man next to her that she was not alone.

"I was also very pleased by your performance, but I knew it would go well. I just didn't know it would go this well." And once again, the woman was beaming with pride.

Momo withheld a sigh, somehow, getting this job did not seem as important anymore. It felt more like a side quest, judging from the way the conversation kept going. They hadn't even touched the subject, before she brought it up.

She vaguely watched as the waiters cleaned up their plates and refilled their glasses. Momo took a sip of her cocktail. Perhaps a drink was not such a bad idea after all.

* * *

"I would like to ask the both of you a question now, if you don't mind." Mrs. Yaoyorozu reached towards her purse as she asked.  
Shouto decided he would keep silent for a little longer, as everything he seemed to say seemed to be the wrong thing.  
He had almost opened his mouth when his father started talking about kickboxing (he recalled the harsh lessons as if it was yesterday) and inviting the parents. But now was not the time. But getting angry here and now would not be getting him anywhere. So he fell quiet. He would do the same to Mrs. Yaoyorozu.

That is until she asked her question.

"I'd like it if you explained this." She took a magazine from her purse and opened it to a marked page. She then put the magazine on the table and shoved it towards them so they could read it.

Shouto didn't need to read it, as he felt his face grow hot. He heard the girl next to him gasp out loud as he stared down at himself filling up most of the right page. Yaomomo was filling up the other half. It was the exact moment Shouto kept reliving whenever his mind wandered. The moment where Yaomomo had told him that she liked his perfume.  
He was looking down with a sincere smile, he didn't know he had, and he was blushing almost as much as he was now. Yaomomo had her eyes closed and looked peacefully cute with a small blush and her head against his chest.

Worse picture to be in a magazine EVER.

"I- That's…" he started. And at the same time he heard: "We-… I didn't…."

They both stopped and looked at each other. He noticed she was blushing fiercely as well.  
Had they not been in such an awkward situation, he would have stared at her adorably flustered face a little longer. But now was not the time.

He turned towards the parents, who were patiently awaiting their answer with a grin.

"It's not what it seems, I'm afraid." He cleared his throat and loosened his tie a little. Boy was it hot in here.

Yaomomo seemed to recover too. "We were trying to make someone jealous."

Funny, their faces actually looked disappointed for a second, but quickly recovered.

"Jealous? Not Mr. Minoru again I might hope." Mr. Yaoyorozu interrupted the silence.

Momo shook her head. "No, she was actually quite worse than him, to be honest."

Shouto felt his heart warm once more at her understanding.

"She?" This time it was his father.

"Toga-san. She didn't seem to be under the impression that the arranged marriage was annulled after the date" He turned to his father. Curious as to how he would take this.

His father merely blinked once and put a pensive hand to his chin. "I gave word to her father that your interested was merely work related, that's odd."

Great, nice and vague, thank you father. "She didn't appear to have gotten that message. As was clear at the party." He resisted rolling his eyes.

"He explained to me that he could not insult her, as a business partner. So we came up with an idea to make it clear to her he wasn't interested." Momo continued the story.

"And this is the result." She gestured the magazine.

"They why did you have it?" Mrs. Yaoyorozu took the magazine back to make room for the arriving third course, which was an entrecote with pepper sauce, some vegetables and fried potatoes.

Shouto withheld the urge to pull the magazine back, because he had been dying to read it and finally he had a chance. But considering the interrogation they were currently in, seemed to think the wiser.  
He simply watched his plate get put down in front of him as he waited to Yaomomo to answer this one.

"I-" she started. But she left a pregnant pause that made him look up.  
She was looking at him with a sad smile that made his heart skip a beat.

She cleared her throat and turned towards their parents again. OK, what was that?

"We didn't know each other's names yet. And we made a small bet to see who would be more famous." She continued.  
Was she really going to say the truth? Then again, why not. There were worse things.

"I knew that Mr. Todoroki would be present, for I heard his name quite a few times that evening, but I obviously didn't know it was Shou-… The person next to me. I only knew his first name. As that was the thing that Toga-san kept yelling."

"And I knew her by Yaomomo, because she handed me her napkin when…" He stopped and grinned at her. She widened her eyes and then squinted them in a 'don't you dare' look. Okay, perhaps not the whole truth. "I dirtied my hands."

She rolled her eyes and continued: "So when I saw the magazine in the window when I was going to the meeting, I noticed Mr. Todoroki's name on the cover. I bought it, because perhaps this way we would know who won the bet. And I knew something about the party would be in it, as the name Todoroki was mentioned.

"Off course I never expected we would run into each other in the elevator again, or that I would have a meeting with him that very day."

After a small silence, and some cutting of the steak like meat, his father rose his head. "So you do not have a girlfriend? And it is not Miss Yaoyorozu?" Really father. Can you ask at least a little more subtle? Fine, a blunt answer then too.

"No." He simply answered as Yaomomo shook her head.

Endeavour put down his cutlery and turned towards Mrs. Yaoyorozu.  
Shouto felt relieved and turned to Yaomomo with a smile. At last the interrogation was over. She also turned to him and started to smile until both froze at his father's next question. Perhaps their relief had been premature.

"I have to ask. She's fertile I presume?"

Shouto felt his eyes wide as he watched Yaomomo turn bright red and turned her head quickly towards his father, outrage clearly present on her features.

He quickly rose from his seat and slammed his hands perhaps a little too harshly on the table. "Father! You don't ask-"

But he got interrupted by a casual answering Mrs. Yaoyorozu: "Why yes. She should be a virgin too."

Yaomomo's mouth fell open, Shouto felt himself mimic her movement as she spoke. "Mother!?"

"Excellent. Shouto should be as well." Shouto slouched back down into his seat and face palmed, hard and loud. He felt himself blush and he wasn't sure if he was red because of the anger he was feeling or blush because of the awkward situation they were currently in. He knew one thing now though… In his father's eyes, Yaomomo was now a potential wife. Quite a perfect one as well...perhaps he shouldn't mention that part to anyone yet.  
Approval from his father? Brilliant… He didn't know how to feel about that.

* * *

Momo was getting too tired to even react to it anymore.  
She watched as Shouto fell back into his chair and let the conversation run its course.  
She was no longer hungry but sighed as she tried to take another bite from the hardly touched plate.

At last, the true purpose of the dinner date reared its head. Arranged marriage.  
She knew it was coming, but she felt disappointed none the less. Was this really the way their parents sold them? Comparing them as if they were cattle? It's an insult to them in every way.

But Momo knew the last choice would be up to them, at least she still had that. Which left the question, if it came to it, would she agree?

She regarded the man in front of her, whom also seemingly lost interest in the conversation and poked his fried potato absent mindedly. Would he?

They hardly knew each other, this was true. But she shared more with him that she had shared with any other man.  
Still, there was a mystery to him. Perhaps that was what attracted her towards him this much.  
Could be his eyes, sure. The way she would drown in them when he was staring at her pensively once more. He did that a lot, not that she was paying attention off course.  
Or his well-formed jaw that made him look manly and hot.  
His low voice that made her melt, every time he said her name. She silently wondered how she would feel if he ever said her real first name. He had never done that.  
Perhaps his strong chest, the one that held her when they bumped into each other, or when they danced.  
Or just the way his honestly made him really cute when he was so very serious about something other people would take for granted.  
How about: all of the above?

Momo… what are you doing.

Resisting the urge to drop her head into her plate, which seemed like an excellent way to hide her blush, which was no longer from embarrassment. rose from his seat with his cell phone in hand.

"Please excuse me, I have to take this." He left the table to go outside and held the phone to his ear.

Momo had been perhaps a little to preoccupied in thinking about a certain young man so she had not followed the conversation. Frankly, it didn't interest her anymore either. She knew the topic.  
She watched as her mother nodded with a smile, that looked remarkably much like a grin.  
What was their plan now?

After the red haired tall man returned a few minutes later, he didn't sit down but bowed politely.

"It seems I must cut this meeting short. Something has come up that needs my attention immediately. I apologise."

"Oh, that's quite all right Mr. Todoroki, I hope everything is well." Her mother seemed hardly surprised.

Momo rose a brow and then turned towards Shouto, who had done the same. He rose slowly, to clearly join his father in leaving. But the taller man held out his hand. "No please, stay Shouto. I can handle this alone."

This seemed to surprise the man even more as he openly stared questioningly at him.

"In fact, I remember something we have to attend to as well, don't we darling?" Yeah mom… That's not subtle at all. And even if she believed her mother, her father's reaction was even worse.

"Oh? OH! Yes, yes. We do. So sorry." The poor man quickly rose from his seat as he also dabbed his mouth with a napkin, clearly sorry to leave the table so soon. Momo noticed he had been the only one to actually enjoy the food that was on the table.

"You do, huh?" Momo decided playing along seemed to be the best course of action, whatever their plan was.

"Will you be able to get back alone my dear?" He mother actually sounded concerned there.

Before Momo could nod, Shouto replied her: "I'll bring her home safely Mrs. Yaoyorozu."

"My, a real gentleman." The woman faked another hand on her chest and turned to Mr. Todoroki, who nodded openly and even looked a little proud.

Shouto's pretty good at scoring points… but really bad at choosing the moment.  
Momo resisted a sigh as she watched her parents and his father leave.  
She had also risen to take a polite bow in greeting as they left.  
She then turned to Shouto.

"We've been dumped before dessert."

He sat back down again, but he did sigh in the process.

"I'm sorry about my father. He can be so blunt sometimes." He turned to her, regret clearly on his face as he sat down again.

"It's all right, Shouto." She put her hand on his arm in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture.  
He stiffened at first, but he then relaxed a little with a sad smile.

Finally having a quiet moment, she retracted her hand and leant back in her chair.  
Shouto simply stared in front of him thoughtfully as he leaned with his arms on the table. His hands where folded.  
The silence was a comfortable one as they each thought about what had just happened.

* * *

Apparently, no one seemed surprised by the disappearance of the 3 other people as waiters quietly cleaned up the 3 remaining plates.

They then brought dessert to them. Cutting off their silence. Momo decided she might make the most out of the time she had left with him as she poked her ice cream orbs with seemingly great interest.

"Thank you for offering to take me home."

The half and half boy seemed startled when she spoke. "It's only natural, I don't mind."

Natural huh. Guess she wasn't as special to him as she thought. This should be normal. So why did that sting a little?

"My father seems greatly interested in you." He also started poking his ice cream.

"Only your father?" Momo silently took a bite of her ice cream. Great… that sounded as bitter as she felt, even if she was eating something sweet. She didn't mean for that to come out like that. If his shocked expression was any indication, he also didn't expect that.

"I-" he started. But she interrupted him: "Relax, it was only a joke." She tried to laugh it off as a joke, hoping to cover up her mistake there.

"My parents seem to like you greatly as well." She took another bite, staring at her dessert.

When did they become so stiff? They used to be able to talk normally. She kind of missed that.  
Perhaps this dinner really had changed something with them. A sigh escaped her lips.

"Yaomomo…?" He whispered her name with regret. Even then her stomach still jumped at the way her name sounded when he said it.

"Urgh." She suddenly shook her head violently and stood up. Startling the poor boy.

"Let's get out of here."

* * *

The sudden action from the girl surprised him greatly, but he understood her reasoning and made no complain about it.  
Even better, he felt like it had been the best idea anyone had ever had the whole evening.

He stood up quickly with a chuckle and walked with her towards the door.  
A surprised woman awaited them at the coat hanger.

"Was the food not to your liking?" She blinked as Shouto asked for their coats.

"No, It was delicious. It was just…." Momo begin but then turned to him with a wry grin. "…A bit much?" She turned to the woman again, who offered her coat to her.

Shouto knew Yaomomo was not hinting at the amount of courses the meal had, but more at the heaviness of the conversations.

"Ah yes… well, the full course meal is quite a big one." Relief washed over the woman.

Shouto withheld a chuckle and grinned at Momo, who rolled her eyes playfully at him.  
Shouto's stomach felt strange all of a sudden as he felt his heart skip a beat.  
Really, a simple look from this girl was enough to make him feel things he had never felt before.

He helped her into her coat before he put on his own. She thanked him with another smile and he quickly held open the door for her, before his stomach could react again. Did he eat too much after all?

They walked silently next to each other through the almost empty mall.  
The glass ceiling indicated that it was already pitch dark outside and the night lamps where already on. It must have been really late already.

"I can take a cab from here." She suddenly interrupted their silence.  
He turned to her surprised. "What do you mean?"

"You don't have to take me home, it was nice of you, but I can take care of myself." She sounded a little sad.

He suddenly felt himself get a little angry. "Yaomomo, I really don't mind taking you home. I can't let a lady walk around alone at this hour."

She cocked her head at him. "I thought you said I could defend myself?"  
He didn't know if she sounded amused or insulted. Or was it both?

"I did, and I mean that. But that doesn't mean you have to look for trouble." He shook his head.  
"Besides, what if a group attacks you? Having two capable people working together is always better than one." He smiled at her.

* * *

Momo felt herself get warm. That was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her.  
He actually really thought she could defend herself and he made it sound like they would fight alongside her if problems arose. Plus, he still offered to stay with her.  
He was right though. She felt a little stupid that she would have gone alone. It's always better to stay safe.

"Besides." He interrupted her thoughts.

She watched as he put a hand on the nape of his neck awkwardly. "It would be against everything I stand for as a man if I let you go home alone, please think of my pride."  
She chuckled onto her fist. That was really cute and warmed her even more. He's really such a gentleman.

"Thank you." She turned to him and bowed.

"You're welcome." He simply smiled at her as she rose from her bow.

They continued their walk and the air around them felt a lot lighter all of a sudden.  
Far too soon they reached the elevators and he pressed the button going down.

As soon as they stepped inside, and the doors closed, he turned to her again.

"Where do you live actually?"

She smiled and told him the district.

"Really? I live there too!" He seemed really surprised by that.

"You do?!" she asked him, equally surprised as the elevator door opened, and they entered a dark underground parking area.

He nodded as he took out his car keys and pressed the button.  
Not far from them, she heard a car beep. She turned towards the sound behind her and regarded the sleek black BMW.

"Nice car." She touched the hood as she walked passed it.

"Thanks." He grinned. "I actually chose this one myself." He walked passed her and opened the passenger seat for her. She complied and felt herself sink into the clean leather seat. Comfortable was the thought that evaded her mind.  
He really took care of this thing.

"You have it long?" she asked as he stepped into the car himself. Igniting the engine.

"About 4 years actually." He pressed the GPS screen.

Momo nodded a little impressed.

"So, where to?" he asked her as he gestured the screen he had just opened.

"Oh." She caught on and took out her cell phone to sync the coordinates.

"Is that the picture?" He grinned at her as he stared at her lock screen.

She looked down at the picture she had for nearly 3 months now, completely forgetting about it because she'd had it for so long.

"It's aesthetically pleasing to the eye." She huffed, but she couldn't stop the embarrassed blush that threatened to take over her face.

"Can I have it too then?" She widened her eyes and turned to him again. He was also blushing a little bit.

How could she say no to that? That was totally adorable. Plus, she also promised to give it to him if he didn't talk about it during dinner. And that's what he did.

"I don't have your number." She frowned.

"Oh, just a second." He took out his own cell phone and held it next to hers. Long live NFC. Making everything so easy.

Wait a second…  
Momo suddenly laughed out loud.

* * *

Not that the sound wasn't pleasing to the ears, the suddenly change in behaviour startled him.

"What is so funny?" He asked her surprised.

"This is the most elaborate way anyone has ever given me his number." He laughter changed into a chuckle and she turned to him. "You're really sneaky Shouto."

He widened his eyes in realisation.  
"This is actually the first time I gave it myself first" He blinked a few times as he stared, lost in thought.  
That really was rather impulsive of him.  
Well, Izuki did tell him to get her number, so all is well.

He shrugged towards her with a grin. She shook her head with a small knowing smile and continued the set her address into the system. "And now you know where I live as well." She frowned. "I'm getting careless."

"You really are." He chuckled once more as he started the car.

They fell quiet as Shouto drove them out of the parking lot and onto the highway.  
It was a peaceful one. But he noticed she was obviously thinking about something.  
Perhaps he could help?

* * *

"Penny for your thoughts?" he interrupted her musings.

He startled her and then turned her head towards him. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Shouto?" she started.  
"Hmm?" he never took his eyes off the road, but this gave her indication he was listening.

"Do you think I'll get the spot at the mall?"

She watched as his face turned into an odd grin. It wasn't as much a happy one ad it was a sad one.

"Yaomomo, at this point, I'd be reverse biased if I not to gave you one."

She blinked as she let the words sink in. "Reverse biased? How so?"

His grin turned genuine. "I bought all of your outfits BEFORE they where even out. I'd say that convinced me enough that your clothing line will bring a sufficable amount of income to the company."

"Oh." She was still blinking as she now turned to look in front of her.

"Now can I ask something?" His voice suddenly turned rather soft.

"Yes?" the black-haired woman turned back to him.

"Did you..." He stopped himself, as if trying to find the right words for it.

Momo felt her heartbeat quicken. She knew what he was going to ask her. But she wasn't sure if she should answer.  
Perhaps she should. He does deserve to know…

"Is it true about what your mother said yesterday?" He vaguely questioned her.

She withheld a smile at his awkward wording. "My mother said a lot of things yesterday."

Deciding if she should be embarrassed, he should be too.

He let out a small sigh. "Fine then." He cleared his throat.

"Was I really your muse for the suits line?" She saw as his cheeks turned a little shade of pink. But it could have been the neon sign they just passed, she couldn't be too sure.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes." She breathed out softly.

His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it.

"You must think I'm such a freak right now." She hid her face behind her hands.  
Shouto parked the car to the side and turned to her.

* * *

"You're not a freak! Anything but!" He took her hand in his, mostly to free her face so he could look at it but also to try and comfort her a little.

"If anything, I'm honoured and glad I was able to help you with something." The familiar fuzzy feeling returned. He noticed he was getting this often when she was around.

He watched as her eyes turned wide and a blush finally won and covered her cheeks and nose.  
"Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't ask for your permission."

Shouto frowned and cocked his head to the side. "You have to ask for permission for something like that?"

"I honestly don't know?" She answered him truthfully.

This woman really knew how to make him feel stuff he never felt before and he couldn't help the smile the bloomed on his face. "In that case, feel free to use me as your inspiration as much as you like."

She blinked at him and took the hand he was holding in her other. "Really?"

"Y-Yeah." The genuine look of surprise startled him and the way she took his hand made his stomach do that strange jumping thing again.

"As long as I get to know which ones they are." He decided her might as well add a condition. He would be wat to curious otherwise.

"Deal." She smiled at him.

"Deal." He repeated her, smiling himself.

They stayed like that for a minute more before they noticed they were still holding hands.

Both retreating them quickly he cleared his throat. "We arrived by the way."

Her head whipped around to look out of the window.

"That was quick."

He rose an eyebrow. Thought he had to agree with her. The shortest 20-minute drive he had ever done.

"Thank you for bringing me home." She turned back to him with a slight bow of the head.

"It was my pleasure." He bowed back in greeting.

She opened the door, stepped outside and bowed to look back at him. "Please get home safe."

"It's just around the block, so that shouldn't be a problem."

She stood up straight and looked in front of her. "It is?"

"It's a big block I guess." He shrugged.

She chuckled. "It is."

A silence fell between them.

"Goodnight." The both suddenly said at the same time, startling each other.

Then they smiled and she closed the door gently.

He waited for her to walk into the door and she turned around to wave at him once more.

He waved back at her and watched as she closed the door.

He breathed in and out. "Shouto, get a grip man." He told himself as he started the car once more.

If every meeting with her would be this memorable, he's going to have to get used to a few things. Or he's going to keep making a fool of himself.

As soon as he reached home and parked his car, his phone dinged.

He frowned at it as he unlocked the screen.  
It couldn't be one of the guys, they never used their phones at work.

 **Yaoyorozu Momo**

 _Enclosed attachment:_

 _Hello Shouto,_

 _Hope you got home safely_

 _Here's the picture I promised to give to you.  
Thank you again for taking me home and for the wonderful evening._

 _Have a nice night._

 _Love,_

 _Yaomomo_

Once more his stomach jumped as soon as he read her name on top of the screen.  
Realisation dawned to him just then he really did have her number.  
Feeling stupid he never thought about asking it before he opened the attachment.

He suddenly laughed out loud as he stepped out of the car and took out his front door keys.

He was staring at himself looking rather dopey surprised and holding Momo's hand.  
He then took a good look at her again.  
She looked as beautiful as he remembered. And he was right. He really did like her colours on her.

Shaking his head, he replied to her by telling her he got home safe and bidding her a good night. He also thanked her for the picture and naturally saved it onto his phone.  
She had it as a lock screen, so no one will blame him if he did the same.  
Like she said. It really is aesthetically pleasing.

But he also knew deep down that was not the only reason he wanted it.

* * *

 **Trivia question: The restaurant part I had written down in a booklet AGES ago  
It looks nothing like the original. But the idea is still the same.  
So happy I finally got it all written down!**

 **Thank you guys again for all of the wonderful kudo's and comments.  
You guys actually made me cry.  
And thank you for being patient with me.  
My school is taking a lot of my time right now, but as usual, I'll try and update as soon as I can.  
Until then!**


End file.
